[Report 1956] / Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City.

  • Leeds City Council
Date:
1956
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1956] / Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    61/252 (page 39)
    It is of interest to observe the differing epidemiological features of tuberculosis as it was seen in Leeds during 1956. Non-respiratory tuberculosis developed in the main in persons under 35, but the deaths occurred fairly evenly in all age groupings. The great majority of female cases of respiratory tuberculosis were notified in the 15-35 age-group and 50 per cent, of the female deaths occurred after the age of 55, whereas in men the majority of notifications occurred in the over 45 age-group and nearly 75 per cent, of the deaths took place after the age of 55. It is thus clear that pulmonary tuberculosis is becoming more and more a disease of middle-aged and elderly men. It is, however, not without interest to compare the death-rates of tuberculosis and cancer of the lung with two other main hazards in the 45-65 age- group, whilst in addition the mortality figures due to accidents of all kinds—which may occur at any age—and those due to pneumonia, which has a maximum effect in the 65-75 age-group only add significance. 1956 1955 1954 1953 Pulmonary tuberculosis . . 56 67 83 III j Cancer of lung 226 270 237 203 Bronchitis . . 472 463 408 481 Coronary artery disease . . 982 933 961 830 All accidents 180 163 182 184 Pneumonia 353 255 309 434 Trends in Tuberculosis in the last 20 years.—As will be seen from the graph on page 40, the notifications of new cases of respiratory tuberculosis and the deaths have both declined, especially the deaths. In 1936, 531 new cases were notified showing an attack-rate of 1-08 per thousand population, whilst in 1956 484 cases were brought under treatment, giving an attack-rate of 0-95 per thousand' popula¬ tion. The Second World War, for a variety of reasons, produced an increase in the incidence of tuberculosis which had only returned to the 1936 level by 1946. In the last 10 years, the incidence of respira¬ tory tuberculosis has been reduced from 1-08 per thousand to 0-95 ; there are 35 fewer cases per year now than there were 10 years ago, equivalent to a reduction of about 7 per cent, on the 1946 cases. On the other hand, case-finding methods today may well be more efficient than they were a decade ago and the attempt to find the early symptomless case is prosecuted more persistently than in the past and perhaps more successfully.