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8
There was, unfortunately, one maternal death during the year due to
sepsis following an abortion. It is, however, some consolation to realise
that such an event is now sufficiently rare to merit individual comment.
There were no serious outbreaks of infectious disease in the City during
1960. Notifications of dysentery were higher than in 1959, but it was a
year when measles cases were few and only one case of poliomyelitis
occurred. There were no deaths from any notified case of infectious
disease.
Every year numbers of travellers arrive in Westminster from countries
where smallpox is endemic. It is a tribute to the international arrangements
for notification and the vigilance of the Port Health Authorities
that, whenever exposure to infection by a known case of the disease
has been established, the Public Health Department is informed, so that
the contacts may be vaccinated and kept under surveillance during the
incubation period. Unfortunately, however, it can happen that the
infecting case is not recognised or that the exposure occurs in such a way
that the contacts cannot be traced. Under these circumstances, it is
possible at any time for a person who has been unwittingly infected
to arrive in this country and move about quite freely until increasing
illness causes him to seek medical advice. On page 22 details are given
of such a case which was discovered in the Casualty Department of a local
hospital in October. Although no other case of smallpox has been
notified in Westminster since 1942, the fact that the disease has again
appeared serves to emphasise the continued need for vaccination as a
protective measure in these days of high speed travel between the Far
Eastern Countries and the United Kingdom.
The shortage of Public Health Inspectors continued throughout the
year; at no time were there less than five vacancies, and for a short
period, there were only fourteen posts filled out of an establishment of
twenty inspectors. This is reflected here and there in the statistics
where the number of inspections has decreased compared with the
previous year.
In order to overcome some of the difficulties caused by the shortage
of Public Health Inspectors, the Council, in April 1960, authorised the
employment of three assistants, holding suitable qualifications in building,
plumbing, food or allied trades, to help with certain aspects of the work of
the inspectors. This has proved very successful and has enabled many of
the routine duties, which would otherwise have had to be neglected,
to be kept up to date.
As a long term remedy, the Council had, in 1958, authorised the
engagement of three suitable candidates for training as Public Health
Inspectors, and, at the beginning of 1960, one such student was employed.
He qualified in the Summer and is now working in the department.
Fortunately it was possible immediately to fill his post in the student
establishment and to appoint two other students, so that a full
trainmg programme could be continued during the rest of the year.