[Report 1936] / Medical Officer of Health, Fife County Council.

  • Fife (Scotland). County Council.
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1936] / Medical Officer of Health, Fife County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Deaths in Age Groups. 0-5 5-10 10-15 15-25 25-35 35-45 45-65 65 up. Total. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. |tified cases 1 1 1 2 0 2 15 10 4 9 4 6 9 5 2 1 36 36 Inotified cases 3300020 0200142019 9 | Nummary of the year’s returns compared with those of 1935 :— :|lmonary tuberculosis shows 6 more notifications. Non-pulmonary herculosis shows 19 fewer notifications. Confirmed cases of pul- jnary disease are 13 more than last year, and of non-pulmonary IIease are 30 less. There are 8 more deaths. I't is noteworthy that 18 of the fatal cases = 20 per cent., Were not ified during life. This is a high figure, but it is to a certain extent i')licable. Seven deaths were due to meningitis. This disease usually ih a very sudden onset, often fulminant. There is nothing to dis- ■guish it from meningitis due to other causes. Diagnosis of the cause ]iy not be possible for from three days up to three Weeks or even more, death may supervene soon after or even before diagnosis is estab- ided. Sixteen cases, including all those of meningitis, died in insti- ll ions, 11 out with the County and 5 in institutions in the County. I fact, only two of the total number died at home. What is most ‘i|rettable about these 18 deaths is the fact that they all occurred in j|lilies where tuberculosis had not been found before. No precautions u.inst their occurrence, therefore, could be taken. |Y humourist once declared of a certain form of tuberculosis, namely, i|us, that every time a new remedy for it is announced, it cures jlper cent, of the cases. But, alas, it is the same 50 per cent, every lie. in enthusiast would say there should be no 50 per cent, to cure, inning no cases at all should ever occur. lut as things are, tuberculosis is a necessary evil and will be for Mile time to come. Still it is not unreasonable to say that it should Wear be allowed to be anything more than an early infection, with r lptoins and prodromata common to the early stages of many other 1 >rders. If this postulate is granted then we may go still further v, say that all tuberculous infections, massive ones excepted, are 'able by old remedies. Only 15 out of 90 deaths occurred in the fifteen years of life. This raises the question, what of the other biases ? Were they infected before or after the age of fifteen ? 'he majority were probably infected before that age, and did not Kie under suspicion until too late, when unequivocal symptoms M eared. he duration of life after first infection cannot be ascertained with eainty, but its duration after notification is short. The majority of djie cases survived less than two years and few even one year.