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57
SECTION III
PREVALENCE OF, AND CONTROL OVER, INFECTIOUS
AND OTHER DISEASES
Because of the almost complete elimination of former hazards to
health of the more serious infectious and communicable diseases,
there is a general tendency to under-estimate the importance of the
preventive services in the life of the community.
It is unfortunate, but true, that a period of years or even
generations is usually necessary before the value of any particular
form of prevention is established. Contrariwise, curative services
need very little time, often only hours or days, to produce results
which enable them to claim urgency and a lion's share of available
resources, perhaps to the detriment of preventive aspects.
However, in these days of major upheavals and precipitate
changes, a modification of attitudes can be detected and it is hoped
that, in the near future, prevention of illness will have an equal
status and claim to support as that afforded the curative services.
Naturally it is the Medical Officer of Health and his staff who
are concerned primarily with the application of preventive medicine
to the community at large but the general practitioner, while
continuing to be occupied with the curative services, is more than
ever becoming personally involved with preventive aspects. Indeed
present conditions require a partnership of hospital, general practitioner
and local authority in the preventive field, for the days
of the detached doctor providing complete medical care for his
patient are gone and those of the research worker attempting to
solve, in isolation, complicated biochemical problems are numbered
—all emphasis is now on "team" effort. A recent report of the
Royal College of General Practitioners gives evidence to support
this contention for it shows that the number of G.P.s working
alone has fallen from 70% of the total in 1948 to 23% in 1968
although this same report indicates a disturbing decrease in the
proportion of young doctors—a poor augury for the future.
Whilst most experts would consider the danger of large-scale
epidemics today as rather remote, nevertheless several aspects of
modern society will for some time to come, demand the undivided
attention of health authorities and the active co-operation of a
number of other agencies.
Today young people are highly mobile and can present a very
real problem in the control of certain infectious diseases.