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rather than medical grounds. The incidence of dysentery normally increases during the
winter months, and it seems probable that the very severe weather in the early part
of the year which caused considerable interference with sanitation was a factor which
contributed in part at least to a higher than usual dysentery infection. The spread
of dysentery within the home and the family will be discouraged by good standards of
personal and domestic hygiene and cleanliness. Washing the hands after using the
toilet should be a routine habit, and the toilet compartment itself must of course be
kept scrupulously clean. It is fully realised that good hygiene standards are not easy
to maintain where w.c.s have to be shared by more than one family, and hot water is
not on tap. Improved and modernised housing standards should, therefore, make easier
the raising of personal hygiene standards, but in the meantime more care and effort
are necessary.
On the credit side, it is most satisfactory to be able to place on record that
for the first time in the history of the borough, there was no case of poliomyelitis
during the whole year. There can be little doubt but that mass immunization has been
responsible for this dramatic result.
Respiratory Diseases
Again, on the credit side, the effectiveness of the present methods of treatment
of tuberculosis of the lungs is demonstrated by only eight deaths due to this cause
the lowest on record - compared with 28 ten years ago. The infection itself
unfortunately, has not been conquered to the same degree, and a substantial number of
new cases were found in males, mainly in the older age groups, but in women it is
unfortunate that the principal incidence falls upon the young and middle-aged adult.
Health risks of immigrants have been the subject of discussion for some time and the
Report contains some useful and interesting figures of the results of chest x-rays
done at the Mass X-Ray Unit under the charge of Dr. G.Z. Brett. Those examined were
classified by country of origin, and although the catchment area of the X-Ray Unit is
larger than the borough of Islington itself, the findings can be accepted as an
indication in regard to immigrants resident in the borough. Persons attending the
X-ray Unit may come voluntarily or be referred by doctors, but of those examined, there
were three groups not born in this country who were found to have a much higher than
average incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis. The highest liability was found in Indians
and Pakistanis, followed by those bom in Cyprus and thirdly in Ireland. All these
ethnic groups were found to have active tuberculosis rates several times higher than
those born in this country. It should be appreciated that these findings do not include
information of the length of stay in this oountry, and many cases would have contracted
the illness well after their arrival, and therefore would not have been detectable if
examined at the time of leaving their country.
Pulmonary tuberculosis is still sufficiently prevalent in Islington to create
major social and domestic as well as medical problems, even though eventual recovery
chances have greatly improved. A similar degree of optimism cannot, unfortunately, be
applied to deaths from cancers of the lung and bronchus. Whilst the fatalities due to
this cause have not increased, neither have they decreased, and for the last five
years, the number of deaths has been remarkably constant each year around 170, of whom
between 140 and 150 have been males.
The evidence indicting cigarette smoking as a cause of lung cancer which was
published in 1962 in the Report of the Royal Cbllege of Physicians, has been strongly
reinforced by an extensively documented and thorough report published by the U.S.
Public Health Service, which fully supports from American sources all previous reports
on cigarette smoking risks. Whilst the publication of these reports appears to have a
temporary effect in reducing cigarette sales, the public effect appears to wear off
and cigarette consumption rises again. It is significant that among doctors in this
country who have been the subject of a special statistical survey and whose cigarette
consumption has been reduced more than in any other single group, that their lung
cancer risk has also decreased, whereas it has increased in the general population and