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On this occasion all attendances were by appointment and the local
Branch of the Women's Voluntary Service is to be thanked for "manning"
the four libraries in the borough to issue appointments.
As always there is a hard core of people, who steadfastly refuse to
attend for X-ray. Regular X-ray of all members of the community is of
great importance and a proportion of people, particularly in the younger
age groups, are X-ray minded but further efforts must be made to
persuade others to submit themselves for examination. It may well be
that the system of dealing with one sex at a time could be scrapped
now that undressing is not required. With this restriction removed it
would be possible to deal with people in family groups and thus make
it possible for the older members of the family to attend at the same
time as their children. It must be realised that X-ray of any kind is still
something awesome to many of the over 50's which is the age group
we most need to persuade to attend for X-ray, especially when they
have not been previously examined. Occasionally it has been found that
grandmother or grandfather who has "always had a cough" and has
steadfastly refused to be examined, is an old chronic case of tuberculosis.
Appeals directed to those old people to attend evoke little success
but appeals directed to the family as a whole may result in a valuable
extension of the numbers of persons X-rayed, if the examination can
be on a family basis.
POLIOMYELITIS
In 1953 Poliomyelitis was the second most serious infectious disease,
fifteen cases were notified and seven of these occurred during the first
week of July.
Five of the cases were non-paralytic and on review of the other ten
cases at the end of the year:—
4 cases had recovered without disability.
1 case had a slight disability.
2 cases had moderate disability.
3 cases were still severely disabled and two of these were not yet
able to walk.
This assessment is of course not final as much improvement and even
recovery can occur in the two or three years following the disease.
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