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5
very similar to what it was in 1938. There is nothing particularly
sinister about this because it may mean, and in fact it is thought that it
does mean, that it is due to the active ascertainment of cases through
mass x-ray and through the public becoming more aware of the
desirability of early diagnosis.
The prevention of tuberculosis by BCG vaccination which I have
mentioned in several of my previous reports appears at long last to be
becoming more popular. There has been rather excessive caution
shown by the authorities in this country towards this factor in prevention,
but a large control trial has recently been reported on and this (now
more than thirty years since BCG vaccination was first used in man)
provides clear evidence of the efficacy for some years at least of BCG
vaccination in the prevention of tuberculosis in the group of adolescents
who formed the material of the trial. Other countries have shown that
a substantial degree of protection can be sustained for at least ten years.
One has the impression however that there is too much timidity in
preventing what, when it does occur, is still a very serious and prolonged
disease which can upset for long periods at a time the normal life of
the sufferer. It would seem that the efficacy of BCG vaccination is
scientifically provable to a degree considerably in excess of what
was scientifically provable of the efficacy of immunisation against
diphtheria when the latter was first being pushed and popularised.
Diphtheria happened to be an acute disease which in the substantial
percentage of fatal cases quickly killed off its victims. It therefore
interested the public (just as poliomyelitis does now) much more so
than does a chronic disease like tuberculosis, and it is possibly this
lack of public pressure which has slowed down the official support for
BCG vaccination. Although this may be put forward as a reason it
cannot be an excuse.
Food hygiene
The number of notified cases of food poisoning at 48 was much the
same as in previous years, though considerably less than in 1954,
which year was abnormal in that one incident produced some 80 cases.
Throughout the year the food inspectors continued to give advice to
occupiers of food shops with regard to general hygiene and pest control
and they completed the propaganda campaign started the previous year,
in which priority had been given to dairies, distributors of milk, icecream
sellers, pastrycooks (and bakers), butchers, and greengrocers. At the
very end of the year—actually January 1, 1956—new food legislation
became operative. This was the Food and Drugs Act, 1955 and
Regulations made under it. The 1955 Act consolidated and considerably
amended previous food legislation, giving various new powers,
particularly in relation to labelling and hygiene. The Food Hygiene
Regulations, 1955 set out in very much more detail certain requirements
which had been included under a section of the old Food and Drugs
Act, and also various matters which had been dealt with by byelaws.
Although most of the Regulations came into force on January 1, some