View report page

137
The Metropolitan Asylums Board has recently expressed its
willingness to enter into agreement with the London County
Council and the London Insurance Committee for the provision
of residential institutional accommodation for insured persons and
their dependents as well as for non-insured persons. They have
agreed to find accommodation in existing institutions where possible,
to provide one or two new sanatoriums for early adult cases,
and to refer to a Committee the desirability of purchasing the
Mount Vernon Hospital.
More than half the deaths from non-pulmonary tuberculosis
are of children under 5 years of age; and it is probable that a
much higher percentage of the total number of persons suffering
from non-pulmonary tuberculosis are children of this age. It is
hoped that notification of these cases will facilitate the investigation
of the sources of infection, and assist in securing improvement
in the conditions under which the children live.
ACUTE POLIO-MYELITIS AND CEREBRO-SPINAL
FEVER.
These two diseases, which had previously been made compulsorily
notifiable by many Local Authorities, were required to
be generally notified by a General Order of the Local Government
Board, which took effect on September 1st, 1912. The reasons
for making these diseases compulsorily notifiable were discussed
at length in my Annual Report for 1912. Cerebro-spinal fever is
by far the more fatal of the two.
THE DISINFECTING AND CLEANSING STATION.
During the year ending December 31st, 1913, the following
disinfecting and cleansing work was performed at the station:—
Total number of textile articles disinfected 14,311
Total number of books from Public Library disinfected
121
Total number of verminous persons cleansed 417