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youngsters to live a more healthy life and also give them an understanding of the common mental and
physical disorders, thus relieving the health services of much burdensome work in the future.
A total of 207 health talks and film shows, with attendances of from 20 to 120, were given to 1,075
school children in 1952. The subjects covered a very wide range and were given by the area medical
officer and members of his staff, the chief sanitary inspector and his staff, the deputy borough engineer,
public relations officer and the chest physician. A brains trust at the end of each term enables school
children to raise any health questions that have not been answered adequately during the course of lectures.
Shortage of staff prevents the giving of talks to many organisations in the area. Nevertheless a
total of 28 talks were given by the medical officer of health and the chief sanitary inspector. A list of 15
subjects is sent to the religious, social and political organisations in the area and it is significant that those
usually chosen are associated with the more specific work of the public health department. The attendances
at the lectures have ranged from 20 to 350.
Altogether, one can look back on the year with the satisfaction of knowing that more and more people
in Willesden are being enlisted in the battle against disease. They are beginning to recognise that the main
enemy, ignorance, must be first defeated before any appreciable advance can be made.
Health Services of Other Authorities in the Area
The hospital facilities provided by the North-West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board, and the
maternity and child welfare and school health services provided by the Middlesex Council Council, remain
substantially the same; they are described in the 1948 report.
The two ante-natal and child welfare clinics at Daisley Church Hall, Sneyd Road, Cricklewood,
opened February, 1951, and at St. Catherine's Church Hall, Neasden, opened March, 1952, have proved
very popular and they are well attended by mothers and children in the area.
Building was commenced during the year for the extension of the Willesden Chest Clinic (see page
19).
Mr. Orbach, M.P. for East Willesden, was appointed chairman of the Central Middlesex Hospital
Management Committee at the beginning of 1952.
In June, 1952, a £40,000 extension to St. Andrew's Hospital was opened by Cardinal Griffin, and
named the Griffin Wing. It has 16 children's beds and 16 private beds in either single or small rooms, and
a new X-ray department. The building cost £28,000 and the equipment £12,000.
PREVALENCE AND CONTROL OF INFECTIOUS AND OTHER DISEASES
The reduction in the incidence and mortality of infectious diseases such as diphtheria, scarlet fever,
measles, whooping cough and typhoid fever in the past 50 years is as much a reflection of the improvements
in living standards as in better methods of treatment. Better housing and better nutrition, improved
ventilation and smaller families have helped to increase resistance and reduce the possibilities of spread of
infection. Health visitors have played an invaluable role in health education and improvement in standards
of hygiene.

Diphtheria
In the past three years there has been only one confirmed case of diphtheria annually. Because of
the almost complete disappearance of this disease in the area, parents are becoming complacent. Outbreaks
of diphtheria in other districts have shown that it is dangerous for parents to adopt this attitude, and
they are taking a considerable risk if their children remain unimmunised. Another special campaign for
diphtheria immunisation was therefore organised in February, 1952; again with satisfactory results (see
page 13).
Measles
1,528 cases were notified in 1952 (1,520 confirmed), but a total of 1,567 cases (805 were children
under 5 years of age) came to the notice of the health visitors.
At the end of the year the largest outbreak of measles for many years commenced in Willesden.
The number of cases notified in the last week of the year was at least five times that of 1951.