In 1948 thousands of people in Bradford were struck down by often lethal infectious diseases. Health Reporter Mike Waites looks at the difference 50 years of the NHS has made to tackling diseases which were once common

At the dawn of the National Health Service vaccines and drugs for many feared diseases were still only slowly being developed.

The number of deaths in the first year of life - always a good indicator of the health of the population - stood at nearly one in 20 in Bradford. In 1948 there were 268 cases of tuberculosis in the city, 765 people caught scarlet fever, 1,027 got measles and 1,404 had whooping cough.

Five decades on in 1997 there were less than 250 outbreaks of the illnesses overall - the majority were tuberculosis cases mainly contracted overseas - while fewer than one in 100 babies died before their first birthday.

Undoubtedly, improvements in the standard of living have helped people become more healthy. But such success tackling common illnesses could have not been achieved without the NHS which has made improvements in treatment through new drugs and vaccines available to everyone.

Dr Dee Kyle, director of public health at Bradford Health Authority, said the decline in the impact of infectious disease was a significant benefit of the NHS.

For the first time the health service made treatments, previously available only to those who could afford it, available to all - and, importantly, removed the fear of sickness from families.

Mass vaccination programmes had proved successful. The elimination of measles was now forseeable, just as smallpox had been eradicated, although new diseases were always liable to break out.

"Tuberculosis was still a major concern 50 years ago but the NHS tightened up control procedures and effective drugs for the treatment of TB became available. The overall numbers of people with it has dropped although Bradford still has a lot of work to do on TB.

"If you take your eye off the ball some types of diseases have a way of getting back at you - in Eastern Europe at the moment there are a lot of problems with multi-resistant TB.''

Dr Kyle said particular improvements had been achieved in care of children, while screening programmes had saved women's lives.

"I think we are at the point of harnessing the benefits of the NHS to try and improve health and healthcare to really make a difference to the health of the population rather than still thinking we are running hard to get rid of the problems left over from before the NHS.''

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