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141
SECTION F
Prevalence of, and Control over, Infectious
and Other Diseases
In Greenwich, the biennial periodicity of measles prevented
this year from being considered completely satisfactory, for most
other infectious diseases showed substantial reductions.
In these circumstances it seems ironic that a discordant note
should be sounded but, at all costs, complacency must be avoided.
Bacteriological infections have undoubtedly been suppressed but
they have not been eliminated and they can so very quickly become,
once again, a menace to the health of the community.
Danger arising from such indifference is exemplified in the fact
that several London areas reported small outbreaks of diphtheria
which, without prompt and effective action by the public health
authorities, could have been extremely serious.
From a national point of view, several disturbing features have
come to light during the current year, viz. the remarkable increase
in the resistance of the haemolytic streptococcus in hospitals and
maternity homes—the increase in venereal disease especially among
the younger groups of adults—the increase in the incidence of
leukaemia—the accentuation in certain areas of the tuberculosis
problem by immigrants and the introduction by them of unfamiliar
complaints and helminthic infections.
As has so often been stated, public health is that part of preventive
medicine directed towards the protection of the health of
the community, or such regulation of the communal physical environment
as may be necessary not only to prevent disease but
actively to promote health. In the earliest days of public health
authorities, these functions were primarily concerned with the
control of epidemics of cholera, plague, smallpox, typhoid, etc., but
within the last two or three decades the whole picture relating to
infectious diseases has changed, largely as a result of the environmental
and preventive health services.
As far back as the 1850's there was only one disease against
which immunity could be given, namely, smallpox and even this had
to be introduced on a compulsory basis in 1853. Since then routine
immunity procedures have been introduced for use against
diphtheria, tuberculosis, whooping cough, tetanus and poliomyelitis
and there is reason to think that, as a result of recent experiments,
measles will also join this list.
Inevitably, perhaps, these measures, by their own success have
introduced a sense of false security in that there is now growing
up a generation of parents with no knowledge of the disfiguring consequences