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VENEREAL DISEASES
The following table shows the number of Bexley cases treated in various clinics during 1970.
The total of 221 sexually transmitted diseases was 45 more than in 1969, itself the worst year since
the Borough was formed. The increase was due mainly to gonorrhoea and to other venereal
conditions and some of these other conditions are capable of causing serious complications and
disability.

Although the figures for Bexley are well below the national average for 1970, there is no
room for complacency, because the Bexley rates are following the national upward trend.
The reasons for the increase are not hard to find. The powerful inducements to sexual
incontinence do not require description. It is not surprising that there is no evidence of any
decrease in promiscuity. The change in practice from barrier contraceptives to the use of the "pill"
by women must also have been a factor in increasing the chance of acquiring one or more of these
diseases.
Contact tracing remains an important weapon of case finding and disease control; hitherto it
has been undertaken mainly from the hospital clinics concerned in this work but the Health and
Welfare Department is well equipped to assist when so requested. Health education obviously is
important but there is room for much improvement in both its content and presentation. In his
1970 Annual Report the Chief Medical Officer points to the steady increase in sexually transmitted
disease amongst girls and boys in spite of the fact that school authorities continue to
promote teaching in classes on the biology of sex to the younger children and on the importance
of personal relationships to the older ones, albeit with varying degrees of efficiency and
enthusiasm.
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