On the 70th birthday of the BJGP we took a dive back into the archive to get a feel for how GPs were guided by the Journal over past decades in their daily clinical practice. Some of the advice was linked to published research, throwing light on a previously unknown area, but clinical guidance appeared intermittently, dating back to the ‘Clinical Notes’ section of the 1950s. Here are some that caught our eye.
COMMUNITY RESEARCH ON SCABIES
In 1959 the Journal reported on 200 cases of scabies.1 It’s a fine example of some relatively simple, though certainly diligent, community research (Figure 1). Until then scabies had been characterised as a disease of the ‘dirty’. The GPs noted the locations of the lesions on the body and made a judgement on the cleanliness of the individual’s home. Only 7.5% had lesions confined to the hands and wrists. They noted that a ‘different class of patient’ was being attacked and that scabies should be considered more often in cases of intractable itching — which remains sound advice. Interestingly, the epidemiology of scabies in the UK is still poorly understood and the UK Health Security Agency has published guidance on its management in long-term care settings.2
Hand-drawn graphs were used in this 1959 paper — this one …
RCGP login
Members, please Login at RCGP to access the journal online
Subscriber login
Enter your BJGP login information below.
Log in using your username and password
Log in through your institution
Pay Per Article - You may access this article (from the computer you are currently using) for 1 day for US$35.00
Regain Access - You can regain access to a recent Pay per Article purchase if your access period has not yet expired.
In this issue
Jump to section
More in this TOC Section
Related Articles
Cited By...
