[Report 1913] / Medical Officer of Health, Somerset County Council.

  • Somerset (England). County Council.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1913] / Medical Officer of Health, Somerset County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    TABLE XIX. Pulmonary Tuberculosis cases in relation to separate bed and bedroom accommodation. Cases. Percentages. • Urban. Rural. Urban. Rural. Separate bedroom at time of first visit 278 239 49-8 47-7 ( subse(£uently remedied ... 54 62 9-7 12-4 Not a separate bedroom < ,, partly remedied i 12 1-2 2-4 ( not remedied ... 219 187 39-3 37-5 Separate bed at time of first visit 382 314 67*2 63 3 Not a separate bed | romedied . ^ 1 not remedied 40 146 45 138 7-0 25-8 9-0 27-7 The urban and rural figures as regards number of bedrooms and occu})ants are very similar, the chief difference being that while 34.4 per cent, of the urban cases lived in houses with only one or two bedrooms no less than 42 per cent, were so situated in the rural cases. Forty-five per cent of the urban and 42 per cent, of the rural cases lived in three bedroom houses. The figures as to the number of occupants show that in many cases proper separation must have been quite impossible. For example in 04 of the urban and in 78 of the rural cases there were five or more occupants living in the house although there were only two bedrooms. Direct inquiries as to whether the patients occupied a separate bedroom showed that in less than half the cases this was not the case while in only about 05 ])er cent. (07 urban and 03 rural) of cases was a separate bed occupied. Endeavours are always made to alter this deplorable state of things but as the table shows it was only possible to get it remedied in a small proportion of the cases. The figures given refer only to cases of pulmonary tuberculosis the great majority of which were actively infectious. Although a good deal can be done to prevent infection by proper instruction of the patient it is obvious that under the conditions under which many of these sufferers live those who reside with them must be exposed to great and frequent risk of infection. Something has been done by the })rovision of shelters but there is great need for the [)rovision of beds for advanced cases and [)owers to coni})el cases which cannot be kept at home, without great risk of infection to others, to be isolated in institutions. At ])resent there are no com})ulsoiy })owers in this direction. Fareful attention is paid by the Health \dsitors to the sanitarv condition of the houses in which the tuberculosis cases are living and all serious defects are re})orted to the Medical Officers of Health of the districts. While defects were common, houses with very marked defects wert‘ not very numerous, for the pei’iod from ()ctober, H)12, to the end of ini3 only 10 in th(' Frban and 41 in tlu' Rui’al disti’icts were I’eportx'd as sj)ecially defective. In some 13 cases in the Frban and 31 c*as('s in the Hin-al districts d('{init(‘ ovc'i’ci’owding waspres(Mit. All (h(‘cases but one in the Ih'ban (listricts were soon rcmcdi('d but in niore than half (17 cases) of the Rural cases the overcrow cling was not remedied by the end