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TREATMENT AND BATHING CENTRE 1964
Superintendent - Hr. T. Lloyd, T.D.
The demands on the incontinent laundry service continues
to increase and a total of 52,259 1bs of soiled items for the
Southwark and Lambeth areas were laundered during the year. In
Southwark, this laundry is delivered back to the home on the day
following collection and in cases of acute incontinence, collections
are made three times a week. This service is considered
to be a major amenity to those, mainly aged and usually bedridden
persons, who have to bear with this most embarrassing
condition added to their worries of continual ill health.
The number of individuals requiring treatment for a verminous
condition of the head and body, remained at about the same low
level as in the previous year, i.e. 805 in all, including 322
school children. The majority of the male adult persons treated
were occupants of hostels or lodging houses, or stated that they
had no fixed abode. In every case these were obvious or suspected
cases of body vermin infestations. Of the female adult
persons requiring treatment for a verminous condition, 63 of the
165 cases were from hostels and lodging houses. The majority of
these had infestations of head lice only.
The total of scabies treatments carried out during the year
showed a fairly considerable increase on the 1963 figures. A
substantial number of those requiring treatment were from
immigrant families.
The long, warm summer resulted in more rapid insect pest
breeding and a consequent greater demand from domestic and other
premises for assistance in dealing with a varied selection of
insects and other arthropods.
With a general increase in the number of holidays taken
abroad, it is inevitable that more of the residents in this
Borough may find that when they return home, they are placed
under some period of surveillance in accordance with the International
Sanitary Regulations. Without necessarily being aware
of it, they may have been closely or remotely in some form of
contact with one of the six diseases covered by these Regulations.
In the case of Smallpox, a person who has visited an
'infected local area' and does not produce a valid certificate
of vaccination, is placed under surveillance for a period of 14
days. During 1964, ten Southwark residents were placed under
such surveillance and were much surprised when informed that one
of the ports at which their ships had called, was in a Smallpox
'infected local area'.
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