View report page

4.
5, Church Passage,
Guildhall, E.G.
To January, 1945
THE WORSHIPFUL,
THE PORT OP LONDON HEALTH COMMITTEE,
Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report as Medical
Officer of Health of the Port of London.
Circular No. 52/^5 from the Ministry of Health, dated 20th
March, 1945, states
"I am directed by the Minister of Health to refer to
"Circular 1937 of the 11th January, 19^0, and to request
"that the Authority will instruct their Medical Officer
"of Health to prepare his report for 19UU, on the lines
"indicated in that Circular".
At' the invitation of the United Nations Relief and
Rehabilitation Administration your Medical Officer was seconded
for a period of six months for service with that Administration,
and left the service of the Port Health Authority on the 1st
September.
Dr. C. P. White, the Medical Officer of Health of the City
kindly undertook generally to supervise the work of the Port, and
Dr. J. R. Davies, your Acting Senior Medical Officer, was transferred
from Gravesend to the Head Office. His place was taken
by Dr Vidot, as Temporary Boarding Medical Officer,
One hundred and ninety-eight cases of communicable diseasei
(including malaria) were reported as having occurred on vessels
during the voyage of which 6k were landed in the Port,
Fortv-six cases of which particulars are given in
Appendix II (b), were admitted to Infectious Diseases Hospitals,
The arrangements that were made for the reception of
communicable diseases in Hospitals in the vicinity of the River,
at the time of the closure of the Port Isolation Hospital at Derra
in 19U0, continued to work satisfactorily.
The Disinfecting Station at Denton continued to be used
for the disinfection of cases arriving at Gravesend, their clotbi;
bedding and effects.
No case of human plague occurred during the year on any
vessel bound for London.
Of the 1,129 rats examined bacteriologically, 6C0 were fro'
ships and 1+69 were from shore premises. No rats were reported to
be infected with Plague.
One hundred and forty-seven vessels were fumigated for
rodent destruction and .the issue of an International Certificate,
under the supervision of vour Inspectors, 3 by sulphur dioxide,
resulting in the destruction cf 76 rats and 25 mice, and 1L3 by
hydrogen cyanide, accounting for U,228 rats and 369 mice. One
vessel was fumigated with a combined fumigant of sulphur dioxide
and- hydrogen cyanide which accounted for 51 rats and 11 mice.
A total of 8,915 rats were destroyed during the course of
the year, 5,887 in ships and 3,028 on shore premises in the Pert.
Ir addition, 2,451 mice were destroyed, 61+0 in ships and 1,811 on
shore premises.