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56
SECTION III
PREVALENCE OF, AND CONTROL OVER, INFECTIOUS
AND OTHER DISEASES
Unfortunately, with national economic instability comes the
unpalatable and deadening influence of stricter financial control
which, inter alia, has its effect upon all private and public expenditure,
not excluding that concerning the health services.
Nevertheless, even without these enforced restrictions, as technology
progresses so more and more medical procedures become
economically impossible despite the aid of major scientific advances.
Furthermore, it is extremely doubtful if it could ever be
possible for the nation's health services to provide the best medical
care for all its citizens. Indeed, it seems inevitable that a combination
of such circumstances will dictate a policy of reducing
morbidity rather than mortality which, happily, will result in
improving the quality of life though not necessarily its length. In
fact this statement is the embodiment of the spirit of local
authority health departments which have always operated and will
continue to operate within this context.
Without minimising the continuing public health importance of
the highly communicable diseases, control of infection-producing
bacteria and viruses by modern chemotherapy and immunological
procedures is such that greater attention can now be given to the
non-infective, the genetically determined and the occupational
diseases which cause so much misery or claim so many victims.
From one aspect this particular position is most opportune.
Today, world competition is demanding higher efficiency and lower
costs and, in response to such stimuli, the pace of industrialisation
and urbanisation is accelerating, technology is advancing at an
unprecedented rate and the use of complex and dangerous substances
is increasing. Furthermore, rationalisation of industry,
which seems indispensable to success, leaves the worker with a
more profound feeling of helplessness being more remote than
ever from those who take decisions which affect his working life.
These dangers, together with other health risks arising from noise
and vibration, dust and radiation, etc., serve not only to emphasise
the common cause of national and occupational health services but
also highlight the need for concerted action as exemplified in the
W.H.O.'s relations with the International Labour Organisation.
Pioneers in sponsoring medical legislation concerning such problems
as lead and phosphorus poisoning, anthrax infection and dust