Tuberculosis in immigrants in Birmingham, 1956-1957.

Abstract

Until quite recently the only numerically import ant migration into Great Britain was from Ireland, and the two papers (Hess and Macdonald, 1954; Brett, 1958) published since 1945 on tuberculosis in immigrants dealt mainly with tuberculosis in Irish immigrants to one section of London. The City of Birmingham, with a population of just over 1,100,000 has many inhabitants who are not natives of the city; most have come from other parts of England, but there has also been for many years a steady immigration of Irish, and for a rather shorter period a number of Indians and Pakistanis and a consider able influx of West Indians. With this varied popula tion and a unified tuberculosis service, it seemed appropriate to undertake at least a preliminary study of tuberculosis in immigrants in Birmingham. It was accordingly arranged that tuberculosis visitors should routinely ascertain the place of birth of every person notified as suffering from tuberculosis in Birmingham on and after January 1, 1956. From the information so obtained it has been possible to tabulate the place of birth, age, and sex of persons notified during the years 1956-57. It was apparent from a preliminary tabulation of the 1956 notifications that two immigrant groups, Irish and Asian born, were large enough to justify further study. The case-records of as many as possible of these patients were therefore studied to extract further information concerning date of entry to this country, type of disease, and bacteriological state. Although the cases of tuberculosis among West Indians were not numerous their records were similarly analysed, using both 1956 and 1957 cases to increase the size of the group. Place of birth was selected as the criterion for study because the Census reports give sub-divisions of population by place of birth, and the census information is used as the basis for estimating the Irish born population of Birmingham, and for one estimate of the Asian born. For a second estimate of the Asian population and the only available estimate of the West Indian born population, we are indebted to Mr. A. Gibbs, Liaison Officer for Coloured People, City of Birmingham.