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and the Minister of Food strongly urges an intensification of rat destruction
activities. Apart from these endeavours to prevent food wastage,
rat destruction from a public health aspect is important as rats are
notorious disease carriers.
That the public is exceedingly rat conscious is borne out by the fact
that 804 complaints were received during the year. This figure is 14
times greater than the average yearly complaints received for the three
years prior to the outbreak of the war.
Arrangements were in hand at the end of the year for systematic rat
destruction treatment of the sewers to be undertaken.
Water Supply.
The supply provided by the Metropolitan Water Board has been
satisfactory (a) in quality, (b) in quantity ; no complaints were received
as to any form of contamination and no samples were taken for chemical
or bacteriological analyses.
All the dwellings in the Borough are supplied from public water mains
direct to the houses.
Disinfection.
The following is a record of the work carried out by the Disinfecting
Staff during 1945 :—
Number of houses or parts of houses and contents disinfected
906
,,verminous rooms disinfested 232
,, ,, articles of clothing disinfested 43*
,, ,, ,, beds disinfested 321
* Excluding the clothing of persons dealt with at the Bathing Station.
Cleansing and Disinfection of Verminous Persons and their
Belongings.
The following cleansings and medicinal baths were carried out at
the Bathing Station, which forms-part of the Public Health Station,
during the year: —
Verminous conditions :
Adults 36
Children under 5 12
„ over 5 9
Scabies:
Adults 548
Children under 5 112
„ over 5 11
Two hundred and eleven adults and 58 children received treatment
at the Cleansing Station during 1945. In addition 66 Hampstead school
children received treatment at Cleansing Stations outside the Borough
under the L.C.C. Scheme.
During the year, 232 verminous rooms in 191 houses and 321 sets
of beds and bedding were cleansed and freed from vermin.
One hundred and ninety-six cases of Scabies were notified during the
year. These were investigated by the Health Visitors, and, where