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Venereal Disease
Mr. Ambrose King, F.R.C.S., Medical Director, Whitechapel Clinic, reports
as follows;-
" The areas in which syphilis and gonnorhoea were contracted in the
first 10 months of 1965 and the results of contact tracing in 1965 as
compared with 1964, are shown in Tables I-IV, on page 8768.
It will be seen from Table 1 that two-thirds of early syphilis in
1965 was contracted in Tower Hamlets and that of a total of 62 cases of
early syphilis 48 occurred in Pakistanis and, although the table does not
reveal it, most of these were acquired in the Brick Lane and surrounding
area.
Table II shows that the percentage of cases of gonorrhoea acquired in
Tower Hamlets was 33.8 in 1965(it should be pointed out that these figures
refer roughly only to the first 10 months of 1965 and are taken from some
work that was done by Dr. J. W. Race in this department).
The graph opposite shows clearly the preponderance of Pakistanis with
primary and secondary syphilis and it is interesting that there were three
peaks, in March, July and September.
Table III, Contact Tracing, Syphilis, shows that whereas in 1964 only
one contact of syphilis attended and she was found not to be infected, in
1965 13 contacts attended and 10 of them were found to have early
syphi1 is.
Table IV, Gonorrhoea., shows that in 1965 the percentage of contacts
who were found to be suffering from gonorrhoea was almost doubled as compared
with 1964, namely 16.3% as against 8.9%.
The relative success in contact tracing in 1965 as compared with the
previous year is attributable to the appointment of a Welfare Officer at
the end of 1964 with the object of trying to improve upon the previous
system of contact tracing which relied mainly upon the efforts of the
patients themselves."
(There are now two Welfare Officers appointed by the Health Department
for this purpose,who work from a permanent base at the Whitechapel Clinic
under the direction of Mr. King.)
Whooping Cough
Cases notified during the year numbered 101. There were no deaths.
Statistics relating to immunisation are on page 83 .
22.