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61
Childhood malignancies
This survey was started in 1961 by the Department of Social
Medicine at Oxford University after publication of work on the
aetiology of leukaemia. We have continued to co-operate by providing
information and finding control children, but pressure of
work prevented the medical staff from being able to carry out
any interviews during the year. Arrangements were therefore made
for a doctor from Oxford to undertake the work, and she interviewed
the parents of four children who died during 1965 and
those of four control children.
Spina bifida
The new surgical approach to spina bifida, involving operations
within hours of birth, has meant that many children who would
formerly have died are now living although with varying degrees
of handicap. It is necessary to know more about the number and
condition of these children if their future health, welfare and educational
needs are to be met.
The Department is co-operating in a survey designed to discover
the prevalence of spina bifida in Greater London on 30th September,
1966, and during the following year, and to provide information
on the various problems connected with this congenital
handicap. The intention is to obtain enough details to enable more
specialized studies to be launched later. There were on that date
29 known cases in Wandsworth; two of them have since moved
out of the borough.