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Smallpox
There were no cases of smallpox in Camberwell during
1962. Consultations were requested by local medical
practitioners in several suspected cases, but these were
mainly coloured immigrants suffering from chicken pox.
Surveillance was necessary in the cases of two residents
who had travelled from an area in which there was a
small epidemic of smallpox.
Venereal Diseases
During the past five years the increase in the
incidence of venereal diseases has caused much concern
to medical and social workers. Valuable information is
supplied regularly to the Public Health Department from
two hospitals which serve this Borough stating the numbers
of Camberwell residents attending their V.D. Clinics for
the first time in each month. These figures do not, of
course, represent the true cases of infection, since a
recent survey by the British Medical Association indicates
that 20% of all venereal diseases are treated outside
hospitals and clinics. Also a certain number of first
attenders are those who have taken risks and are anxious
lest they have become infected, and those who have the
abnormal and excessive fears which these diseases
sometimes induce. With these exceptions in mind the table
on page 25 indicates that there was a slight increase
in the number of cases attending during 1962, particularly
during July, August and September. The figures unfortunately,
follow the national pattern. Committees have
been set up by the British Medical Association and the
Central Council for Health Education to investigate the
causes of the increasing numbers of young people infected
and the sexual habits of young people generally.
It has been suggested that the extensive socioeconomic
changes of the past decade with high wage
packets for young people and the constant menace of the
hydrogen bomb have produced the worst effects of war and
peace. It is perhaps true that young people have never
been exposed to so much sexual stimulation and propaganda
and, in many cases, so little religious teaching and
example in their own homes - the places which should be
the most important sources of training for citizenship.
Parents and young people must be helped to understand
the perils of these infections - to the sufferer himself
and to the nation generally.