Prevention of pulmonary tuberculosis / report by County Medical Officer of Health.

  • Staffordshire (England). County Council
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Prevention of pulmonary tuberculosis / report by County Medical Officer of Health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    represents is enormous, and if it can be shown that by any practicable means the number of sufferers may be reduced and the fatality lessened, then, apart from humanitarian reasons, it would pay to adopt such means. It is only comparatively lately, in this country at any rate, that the question of adopting specific measures for reducing the mortality from phthisis has been seriously considered, but that the disease is amenable to preventive measures is pretty well established by the decline in its mortality coincident with the improved sanitary surroundings and conditions of the people. Again, the fact that complete recovery from pulmonary consumption does occur, is frequently demonstrated in the post-mortem room by undoubted evidence of repair of lung tissue being found in subjects who have died from an entirely different ailment, but who, as the condition of the lungs proves’ must have suffered possibly many years before from consump¬ tion. As it is generally admitted that poverty and general insanitary surroundings have a potent influence as predisposing causes of consumption, it is satisfactory to note the steady decline in the mortality which has taken place in recent years, coinci¬ dent with the growth of sanitation, affording, as it does, undoubted evidence of the preventible nature of the disease. The following are the rates of mortality per million of the population in England and Wales, for each quinquennial period since 1861:— Period. 1861-65 1866-70 1871-75 1876-80 1881-85 1886-90 1891-95 1896-1900 Deaths per 1,000,000 Persons living. = 2526 = 2417 = 2218 = 2039 = 1830 - 1635 = 1461 = 1321 It will thus be seen, that, in the absence of any preven¬ tive measures specially directed against the disease, and without any radical change in treatment, the death rate has