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The Ministry of Health issued a circular in September concerning the
desirability of offering active immunisation against anthrax to workers at risk
of contracting the disease. Employees of three firms handling furskins were
considered to be'at risk to whom it was proposed to offer immunisation facilities
by the Council's staff. However, the appointed Factory Doctor for the firms
concerned undertook the task.
Cancer
Deaths from cancer this year numbered 529 of which 148 were due to cancer
of the lung. The male death rate of lung cancer in England and Wales is now
957 per million population, an increase of 38 per cent in ten years.
Diphtheria
Cases of diphtheria notified numbered 24 the diagnosis being confirmed in
eight cases, all from the same source, as referred to in the preface to this
report.
Particulars relating to children immunised against diphtheria will be
found on page 83 .
There were no deaths from the disease.
Dysentery
Notifications of dysentery during the year numbered 61. compared with
271 in the previous year.
Enteric Fever
Notifications of persons suffering from Typhoid Fever received during the
year numbered 3.
In June, notification was received of a female Pakistani child, aged 8
years, who had arrived in this country from Pakistan four weeks previously.
All the home contacts were swabbed, and no contact contracted the disease.
The child had not attended school in this country, and was discharged from
hospital in August.
In October, notification was received of a boy, aged 6 years, who with
his mother, an Indian, and his father, an Englishman domiciled in India, had
arrived by air in this country in September from a refugee camp in East Pakistan,
after staying overnight in R.A.F. officers' quarters in Singapore. On arriving
in this Borough, the mother and child stayed in one Salvation Army hostel and
the father in another. All the occupants and personnel of the former hostel
and contacts in the latter were investigated. The child was discharged from
hospital in November.
18.