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20
TREATMENT AND BATHING CENTRE
(Superintendent - Mr. T. Lloyd T.D.)
There was a welcome decrease in the overall number of treatments
for verminous infestations of the person, carried out at the Centre
during the year. However, the number of treatments necessary for this
condition remains, in all groups, at a quite considerable level.
Of the 2,254 treatments for lice infestations, 1,315 were for
children attending school and were mainly head louse infestations. It
must be remembered that, in addition to Southwark schools, children
also attend the centre from some Lambeth and Bermondsey schools. In the
case of adults and children under school age, the majority of the treatments
for women and children were also for head louse infestations; but
for adult male persons, each case treated was an active or a suspected
infestation of body lice.
The number of persons requiring treatment for scabies was somewhat
larger than those treated last year. In every case when persons
attend for treatment for this condition, they are advised to ensure
that their immediate family contacts attend their family doctor for
examination, with subsequent attendance at this centre for treatment,
if found necessary.
The long, hot summer resulted in increased insect breeding, and a
great deal of work was involved in dealing with the many calls for
assistance in eradicating infestations of domestic insect pests. The
greater number of the infestations dealt with were of bed bugs, but
there was also a considerable number of fly, beetle and other pest
infestations concerned. A number of business firms requested assistance
in dealing with infestations of cockroaches and fleas on their premises.
A charge covering labour, transport and cost of the insecticides used,
is made in these cases.
As a result of the extended re-housing programme of both the
Southwark Borough Council and the L.C.C. during the year, the precautionary
disinfestation of bedding and soft goods was carried out in
regard to 331, families re-housed by the Borough Council, and 118,
families re-housed by the L.C.C.