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6
5, Church Passage,
Guildhall, E.C. 2.
TO THE WORSHIPFUL THE PORT OF LONDON SANITARY COMMITTEE.
Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present herewith my Annual Report for the year ending
31st December, 1922.
The total number of vessels medically inspected during the year was 925,
and the total number of cases of illness reported to your Medical Officers was 530,
of which number 33 cases were removed to Denton Hospital.
Aliens arriving in the Port have been found to be clean, healthy and lousefree
to a degree which compares very favourably with conditions which existed
among them in former times.
There was no large amount of infectious disease during the year amongst
shipping entering the Port if the word infectious be read in the narrower sense.
No case of smallpox was landed at Denton. One plague-infected ship was discovered
on arrival. No cholera or typhus infection was introduced. On the other
hand malaria in its more virulent form was prominent and is dealt with in this
report. Influenza presents interest but usually as a misdiagnosis, or as a label for
the catarrhal febricula. On one of the Training Ships recurrent cases of diphtheria
have raised the question of the Schick Test ; much work is being done in the matter
of this disease, and the test has elucidated many points of great practical bearing
on the handling of an epidemic especially in schools.
No infected rat has been found in the Port. The number bacteriologically
examined has fallen below what is reasonably to be expected, but stress is to be
laid on the absence of any mortality or morbidity ; these, being the earliest indication
of plague infection among the rodents, are carefully watched for. The
Port of London Authority are making such dispositions in the docks as must and
do in a progressive manner lead to a condition of comparative freedom from the
pest.
Food and Sanitary inspections have been carried out in a satisfactory manner.
The replacement of old tonnage by new has carried with it a distinct rise in the
level of comfort and sanitation of crew's spaces on shipboard.
The Annual Report on the working of the Canal Boats Acts and Regulations
is appended to this Report.