[Report 1959] / Medical Officer of Health, Liskeard R.D.C.

  • Liskeard (England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1959
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1959] / Medical Officer of Health, Liskeard R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    In recent years reports have been received of a mild epidemic type of gastro-enteritis and during the summer of 1959 it was fairly prevalent amongst visitors and local residents in this Area. The disease, the main features of which are vomiting and/or diarrhoea is normally of short duration and clears up in 24 to 48 hours without any specific treatment. Although bearing a superficial resemblance to food poisoning it differs from it in that no food poisoning germs can be found in the stools, and spread of the disease resembling as it does the passage of the common cold suggests that the infecting organism is probably air-borne from the upper respiratory tract of the sufferer. The cause is unknown but is thought to be a virus as yet unrecognised and unclassified. At the present time the only communicable disease which gives cause for concern, and remains as a reminder of less happy days is tuberculosis. Whilst it is true that we no longer see the tragic deaths of young adults and talented and useful members of the community in the prime of life there is still an appreciable amount of tuberculosis infection about. At one time some ten years ago high hopes were entertained that with more effective remedies and methods of treatment coupled with improved techniques for discovering cases and a more enlightened attitude to the disease the days of tuberculosis as a major communicable disease were numbered. These hopes have proved to be over-optimistic, and we now know that the problem although it will be eventually reduced to insignificant proportions cannot be expected to resolve and disappear rapidly. More efficient methods of treatment are in some cases a two-edged sword. In the majority of cases quick and effective cures are achieved, but in a certain minority of cases the drugs do no more than keep alive as potential or possible sources of infection persons who would other¬ wise have died of the disease, and thereby ceased to menace others. The more enlightened attitude to this disease which has been more and more in evidence since the war has not unfortunately been effective in the older section of the community who are very unwilling to accept any suggestion that they might be sources of infection. It is a common finding that elderly contacts of cases are unco-operative or frankly unwilling to attend contact investigations designed to find the source of infection, and they seem very reluctant to attend mass radiography sessions when these are held in a locality. As far as the No. 7 Health Area is concerned there has been a moderate increase in the number of new cases of tuberculosis discovered over the past two years. After a progressive steady fall from 1953 to 1957 the incidence of new tuberculous infection discovered in 1959 was back to the level of 1954. Whereas up to 15 or 20 years ago the main impact of this disease was on the young adult there has in recent years been a shift in the incidence to those in the middle-aged and elderly section of the population and in 1959 the per¬ centage of cases aged 45 years and above at the time of notification was as high as 38%. If any lesson is to be learned from this it is surely that people, who because of their age might have regarded themselves as being safe from the risk of tuberculous infection, should not hesitate to seek advice and should submit to necessary investigation when any chest condition shows a tendency to become chronic or even slow to clear. This is particularly important if as grandparents they have contact with and possibly charge of small children. Last year I wrote at some length about noise and the role it probably plays in helping to bring about mental strain and fatigue. I was gratified to see that not long after I had commited my sentiments to paper a lively attack on the problem and menace of loud and uncontrolled noise got under way in the correspondence columns of at least one national daily newspaper. This resulted in the formation of a Noise Abatement League or Society, and subsequently a Private Member’s Bill on the subject was brought before Parliament, and received general support. I sincerely hope that this and any