[Report 1953] / Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City.

  • Leeds City Council
Date:
1953
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1953] / Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    56/222 (page 40)
    REPORT OF THE WORK OF THE LEEDS CHEST CLINIC BY Gordon F. Edwards, M.B.E., M.B., M.R.C.P. Senior Chest Physician Epidemiology.—The present position regarding tuberculosis in 1953 can be summarised as follows :— [a) The number of persons on the Clinic Register at 31st December, 1953, was 3,273. Rate =6 -4 per 1,000 population. Variation =an increase of 91 compared to 1952. (b) Notifications in 1953 :— (i) All forms of tuberculosis.. .. .. 511 Rate=x-oi per r,ooo population (ii) Respiratory tuberculosis . . . . . . 420 Rate =0-83 per 1,000 population (iii) Non-respiratory tuberculosis . . .. 91 Rate =o-18 per 1,000 population (c) Deaths in 1953 :— (i) All forms of tuberculosis. . .. . . 120 Rate =0-24 per 1,000 population (ii) Respiratory tuberculosis .. .. .. ill Rate =0-22 per 1,000 population (iii) Non-respiratory tuberculosis .. .. 9 Rate =0-02 per 1,000 population. Incidence of Tuberculosis.—A most potent factor in considering the epidemiology of tuberculosis in the light of present therapeutic advances, is probably the size of the pool of tuberculous patients at any one time. A proportion of the pool is known and are thus included in the cases on the Clinic Register. In addition, however, there is another proportion, the size of which is unknown, but which can only be surmised, consisting of those individuals whose tuber¬ culous disease has not been recognised and brought under treatment; and it is obvious that these unknown individuals are the greatest source of danger to the population at large, in virtue of their un¬ recognised disease. During 1953 the incidence of new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis shows a steady fall as compared with previous years and is indeed the lowest case-rate of new notifications on record. Compared with 1940 there were 137 fewer notifications of pulmonary tuberculosis in 1953, being a reduction of 24-6 per cent.