[Report 1898] / Medical Officer of Health, Portsmouth Borough.

  • Portsmouth (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1898] / Medical Officer of Health, Portsmouth Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Mortality in Portsmouth say, if the child of tubercular parents is constantly exposed to infection by the tubercle bacillus it is more likely to contract tuberculosis than the offspring of healthy parents exposed to similar conditions. MORTALITY FROM TUBERCULOSIS. To appreciate the necessity for active steps being taken against tuberculosis it is only needful to consider the number of deaths caused annually by this disease. In England these amount annually to over 50,000; or to bring the facts nearer home, out of the 29,332 deaths that have occurred in Portsmouth during the last ten years, 1889-98, no fewer than 3668J; have been caused by tuberculosis* * ; in other words out of every eight people who died during the last ten years one died from tuberculosis in one or other of its forms. If the mortality from this disease is compared with others it is found that the whole of the deaths registered during the same period from small-pox, scarlet fever, typhoid fever, measles, diphtheria and whooping cough amounted altogether to 2229, or I339 less than are caused by the tubercle bacillus. A fact too having important bearing in relation to tuberculosis is, that out of the 3668 deaths just mentioned, no fewer than 1669 occurred among adults in the prime of life between the ages of 25-55, that is among the most valuable and useful members of the community. These few figures are probably sufficient to enable you to appreciate the enormous mortality caused by the tubercle bacillus, and to justify from the Sanitary Authority the enforcement of all means in their power to combat this fatal disease. Up to the present the efforts of Sanitary Authorities have, and with a considerable amount of success, been directed principally against infectious fevers, if the same energy displayed against, say small-pox or diphtheria, were directed against tuberculosis, there is no doubt a considerable saving in life would be effected. l In considering the deaths from tuberculosis in this Borough two important factors must not be let sight of; one, that Southsea, with other well known places on the South Coast, is the resort of a number of invalids in an advanced stage of consumption ; the other, a still more important factor, is the very large number of men invalided from the Navy and Army on account of consump¬ tion, who eventually die in this town from that disease. * Including all those diseases enumerated under tuberculosis on the preceding page.