[Report 1962] / Medical Officer of Health, Bournemouth County Borough.

  • Bournemouth (England). County Borough Council. nb2004301338.
Date:
1962
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1962] / Medical Officer of Health, Bournemouth County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/98 (page 21)
    Tuberculosis in Bournemouth During the year 50 cases of pulmonary and four cases of non- 1 pulmonary tuberculosis were notified, compared with 37 and five i lotifications in the same categories in 1961. Undue significance j .hould not, however, be given to the increase in notifications of ^ pulmonary disease, as only a comparatively small number of i lotifications were received in 1961, and the true level of annual i lotification at the present time is probably the average of the 1961 ind 1962 totals. It is interesting to note that eight notifications of pulmonary . uberculosis under the age of 15 were received in 1962 compared r vith only one in 1961, and while the criteria for notification have ; ‘-emained unchanged during the last few years, cases of minimal lisease are being discovered and notified as a result of contact racing, and tuberculin testing of school-children, which a decade )r so ago would have appeared unworthy of attention among the nany cases of active and extensive disease requiring urgent treat- nent. The discovery of pulmonary tuberculosis in a schoolchild, or n a schoolteacher, leads to the most careful enquiry by the Chest 31inic, the School Health Service, or both, into the genesis of the ;ase and often to the tuberculin testing of school contacts and the creening of positive reactors. In these matters, and in all else concerned with the prevention )f the spread of tuberculosis, there is a very close liaison between he Chest Clinic and the Public Health Department, including the ,oint use of chest physicians, occupational therapist and almoner, ind the full-time secondment of two health visitors to the Chest Clinic for out-patient sessions, contact and defaulter tracing, and he investigation of social conditions. Tuberculous patients in need of rehousing are referred by the -^hest Physician to the Medical Officer of Health, who forwards letails to the Housing Department with an appropriate recommenda- lon, and the Housing Department has been extremely co-operative n providing suitable alternative accommodation where overcrowded onditions threatened a spread of the disease. The Chest Clinic has also provided special screening sessions ach week for cases of suspected chest disease, three of these