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63
beam enabling incisions of hitherto inaccessible nerve centres to
be effected without recourse to craniotomy.
Far from being effete, preventive medicine is due for a
revitalisation during the latter half of the twentieth century albeit
on lines somewhat different from today.
Legislation
During the current year, no national legislation concerning
infectious diseases was enacted. In respect of the Inner London
Boroughs, however, uniformity with the rest of the country in the
allocation of notifications of infectious disease was effected by the
substitution of the Public Health (London) Act, 1936, with the
provincial Act of the same year and the introduction of the London
Authorities (Miscellaneous Health Provisions) Order, 1965. All
notifications (with the exception of those in respect of tuberculosis
which shall continue to be forwarded to the Medical Officer of
Health of the area in which the patient normally resides) must be
sent to and retained by the Medical Officer of Health of the
district in which the patient is resident at the time of diagnosis.
On representation by the Medical Officer and with the approval
of the Minister of Health, Orders requiring the notification in the
Borough of Zymotic Enteritis and Acute Rheumatism were revoked
on 1st October, 1965.
The total number of Infectious Diseases notified under Section
144 of the Public Health Act, 1936, Section 192 of the Public
Health (London) Act, 1936 (from 1.1.65 to 31.3.65) and associated
Orders and Regulations was 3,036. Under the Public Health
(Tuberculosis) Regulations, 1952, there were 69 notifications,
giving a consolidated total of 3,105 cases notified during the year.
However, 23 cases were not confirmed and 3 were rediagnosed as
food poisoning, thus giving a corrected figure of 3,079 compared
with the combined total of 1,302 in respect of the previous Metropolitan
Boroughs of Greenwich and Woolwich for the year 1964.
This increase of 1,777 is largely accounted for by the biennial
increase in measles notifications.
Particulars of age groups, by sex and districts, are shown in
the table given in the Appendix.
National Insurance Act, 1946
From time to time it is necessary for the Medical Officer of
Health to insist that a suspected 'carrier* of, or a person in contact
with, an infectious disease should be precluded from working in
order that the risk of transmission of the disease is minimised. This
is especially necessary when the person concerned is a 'food
handler'.