Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1960, Side 38

44 Nýggir tilburðir við tuberklasjúkum í Eiðis læknadømi
as well. — The female patient died at the age of 20 of tub. peritonei
e salpingitide. She was presumably infected by her mother in her
earliest childhood.
5 cases of skin tuberculosis: 3 children, 10 to 14 years, with tubercuU
ides, a man of 24 years with a well defined tubercular lump at the
top of the outer side of the left thigh, and a woman of 55 years with
lupus vulgaris. In the first 4 cases the tubercular disease appeared
respectively 1 year, 6 years, 3 months and at least 5 years from the
time of infection. No details are available for the 5th case.
By pulmonary tuberculosis we here mean changes in the lungs which
show themselves to be tubercular as a result of auscultation, percussion
or occurrence of tubercular bacilli in smears. It will be seen from
Table 6 that altogether 76 (38 m., 38 f.) new cases were noted in the
period of 32 years, and that tubercular bacilli were found in the
sputum of 64 of these (33 m., 31 f.). As Table 7 shows altogether 31
persons (12 m., 19 f.) died. In 25 of the 76 new cases the date of
infection is known, see Table 8. No less than 18 (10 + 8), 72°/o of
these 25, became ill in the 10 years from their 15th birthday to the
end of the 24th year. The period between infection and the appearance
of tuberculosis is seen from the table to be extremely variable, but
all the indications suggest that these 10 years are particularly dangerous
for those infected at such an age or earlier. In Table 9, graphs illu»
strate (I) cases of initial fever (106), (II) new cases of pulmonary
tuberculosis (76), (III) deaths from this cause (37, see below). The
initial fever begins 10 years before pulmonary tuberculosis, and this
5 years before the deaths’ graph.
Graph I rises steeply and stops in the forties; graphs II and III
continue to the eighties.
During the period of 32 years there occurred 31 deaths of pulmonary
tuberculosis among the 76 new cases noted in the Medical District
of Eiði. If all the deaths which occurred in this period are to be
included, we must add those cases where the disease began and was
known before 27. VI. 1920 and who died after this day. These numbered
6 (3 m„ 3 f.), giving a grand total of 37. As Table 11 shows, all told
47 deaths occurred from all forms of tuberculosis, which equals 6,6
per 10,000 for the whole medical district and 5,2 per 10,000 from
pulmonary tuberculosis in the 32 years.
Tuberculosis is by no means equally distributed. In village M with
231 inhabitants there were 19 deaths from all forms of tuberculosis,
of which 16 were pulmonary tuberculosis, which equals 25,8 and 21,6
deaths per 10,000 respectively. In village B with 247 inhabitants the
corresponding numbers were 13,9 and 11,4. The parish with the highest
population (629) and 8 and 6 deaths equals 4 and 3. Another parish