[Report 1931] / Monmouthshire County Council.

  • Monmouthshire County Council
Date:
1931
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1931] / Monmouthshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    92/128 page 84
    Dr. Brownlee’s Orthopaedic Clinic has been well attended, and has been of great service especially as a means of discrimination of cases needing urgent treatment, or at any rate avoiding the very long delay in admission to hospital which is still too frequent. During the year, an attempt was made to bring the Register up to date, and lists of live cases and those removed were sent to each of the District Medical Officers. This entailed a large number of domiciliary visits, as well as many postal enquiries. Towards the end of the year, the Ebbw Vale Maternity emd Child Welfare Committee was visited, and arrangements were made for carrying out the after- care of tuberculosis patients. There being no funds at the disposal of the Committee, the scope of their work is necessarily limited. A list of patients lately discharged from hospital and sanatorium was promised, so that these folk might be looked after on their return home. Patients lacking the necessary garments for admission to our institutions were also to be assisted. Special Treatment.—During the latter half of the year, refills in pneu- mothorax cases have been given to our patients at the Newport Institute. General Results of Treatment.—After eighteen years’ experience as a Tuberculosis Physician, it is right that one should ask one s self whether his work has been justified by the results obtained by others working in the same field. Prevention and abolition, as well as treatment, are named in the title of our Association, and it is these two that will be the criteria of our success or failure. One of the chief obstacles to success is the fact that, out of a popu- lation, most of whom are said to be infected, we cannot definitely say who are going to be the victims of active disease. We encounter this difficulty in the examination of children living in contact with infected parents, and we^ meet it again in the case of young adults and the middle aged. One asks one ® why the young miner should so often fall a victim between the ages o and 25 years, and why again, having got to advanced middle age, a miner should form one of the group of increased incidence and mortality. Granted that both age groups were infected in their infancy or ^arly child- hood, what is the important factor that decides which group they should ta into ? Puberty, adolescence, and pregnancy, with all that those conditions might give rise to, one can understand as possible causes of recrudescence or re- infection.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3