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discussion during the teaching of mothercraft and ante-natal care in schools.
Venereal disease and the means by which infection is spread are included in
health education programmes at colleges of further education and on talks to
mothers' clubs. Special teaching on this subject has also been given on request
to schools, colleges and other groups.
The increasing incidence of venereal disease is of particular concern in
Greater London, where it is estimated that half the national total of new cases
of gonorrhoea are diagnosed. The Chief Medical Officer to the Department of
Health and Social Security convened a special conference in July 1971 to
discuss effective control measures in the area. The conference was attended
by medical officers of health, consultant venereologists, contact tracers,
representatives of regional hospitals authorities and family doctors and it was
agreed that priority should be given to tracing possible sources of infection.
Local authorities were urged to consider the recruitment and attachment of
contact tracers to special clinics at hospitals in their areas or, in the absence
of special clinics, to designate health visitors to act as a liaison officers with
the hospitals concerned.
These various factors were taken into consideration by the Health
Education Council in its discussions last year with officers of the Department
of Health and Social Security, St. Thomas's Hospital and the Health
Departments of Lambeth and Wandsworth to formulate an effective health
education campaign. The areas of Lambeth and Wandsworth linked to the
special clinic at St. Thomas's Hospital have been chosen for a pilot survey
in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the publicity material to be
produced for use eventually throughout the country. The main aims of the
campaign can be expressed as follows:
(i) to increase the proportion of contacts traced and persuaded to
attend a special clinic for treatment
(ii) to make the communities concerned more aware of the nature
of the V.D. problem in their localities and of their general
responsibility to prevent these diseases from spreading.
The campaign will be conducted in stages and as a first step will be
directed at patients at clinics and their contacts, particularly the 18-24 age
group who record the highest incidence of syphilis and gonorrhoea. Certain
selected sites will be used to monitor results and further sites will be brought
into the campaign as the target audience is gradually extended to the general
population. Suggested sites are in colleges of further education, libraries,
welfare centres, and other places open to public access. A variety of methods
of health education will be employed, but initially, an exhibition display and
leaflets will be used.