Public Health is Better Than Ever

Considering the hammering the NHS gets in the right wing press and at the hands of politicians many of whom, coincidentally, have vested interests in private healthcare firms, you'd be forgiven for thinking that public health in the UK is worse than it used to be. But a cursory glance at historic disease stats shows another story.

Disease rates over time are a function of available treatments, inoculation programmes, health education and front-line healthcare. The NHS has a role in all of those things. So it should take the credit for some of the following stats.

The following graph shows the number of cases of a selection of infectious diseases identified between 1982 and 2013, as taken directly from government statistics (although older stats go back as far as 1912, as discussed below):

Source: Gov.UK NOIDs Statistics

Let's take a few examples in detail:

• Measles - In 1961 there were 763,531 cases of measles. By 2013 that was reduced to just 6,183, which is in itself a small increase since the low of 2,235 in 2010 due to the inaccurate and hysterical MMR jab reporting.
• Mumps - Likewise Mumps spiked in 2005 during the MMR jab hysteria at 56,256 cases and has now been reduced to 10,093 cases by 2013.
• Whooping Cough - In 1961 there were 169,441 cases. By 2013 there were just 3,273 cases, and that's despite a resurgence from a low of just 405 in 2010.
• Viral Hepatitis - In 1982 there were 10,605 cases, which were reduced to the point where no stats were collected by 2013.
• Tuberculosis - In 1912 there were a whopping 110,706 cases of TB reported. By 2013 there were fewer than a tenth of that at 8,087 cases,
• Scarlet Fever - In 1921 there were 137,073 cases. By 2013 there were just 4,642.
• Erysipelas - In 1913 there were 23,260 cases of this horrible looking thing, which I confess I've never even heard of. It disappeared from stats altogether in 1966.
• Diptheria - In 1920 there were 69,481 cases. By 2013 there were 9.
• Smallpox - In 1930 there were 11,839 cases. There hasn't been a case reported since 1978, in which year there were 2.
• Food Poisoning - In 1998 there was a peak of 93,932 cases. By 2013 there were just 15,216 cases.

It's also worth pointing out that the population in 1912 when these stats start was 42 million, whereas today it's heading towards 70 million. So the numbers of disease cases reported at the beginning of the 20th century were vastly higher despite there being nearly half as many people in the UK.

So, despite  constant crisis stories in the press about GPs and Hospitals, public health is actually the best it's ever been.