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18
Eventually child health will become part of family health but there
will probably be a permanent need for a small cadre of doctors
specialising in the medical aspects of the education of the physically and
mentally handicapped—a task which is unlikely to grow less complex
in the years ahead. Similarly, local authorities will always require
advice on the medical fitness of prospective and actual members of
their staffs and on other occupational health matters. Staff health
services grow steadily in importance.
Finally, there are the traditional public health functions of sanitation
and communicable disease control. Today, thanks in no small measure
to the major advances made in these fundamental aspects of environmental
hygiene, the average citizen regards the vista of a ripe old age
enjoyed in a satisfactory physical environment free from the threat of
pestilence as a reasonable expectation. Yet clean water, clean milk,
clean food, clean air and a quiet atmosphere cannot be taken for
granted—witness the persistently and unnecessarily high incidence of
food poisoning, the current interruption of the clean air programme
which has been such an outstanding success in the Greater London
area, the growing concern over the problem of noise and of modern
forms of pollution such as vehicle exhausts and pesticide residues in
food. In no sphere is the work of the public health inspectorate more
important than that of housing, for insanitary, congested living circumstances
are conducive to neither physical safety nor emotional stability.
The problem of houses in multiple occupation where conditions are far
from satisfactory is rightly receiving special attention in Wandsworth
and the advent of the new Covent Garden market will mean a marked
expansion in food hygiene and sampling activity. The environmental
health staff also play a leading role in controlling the spread of infectious
disease, through the follow-up under medical direction of cases
and contacts, and the disinfection of articles and premises. Immunity
from major infections cannot be assumed automatically in this jetpropelled
era in which the ease and speed of modern travel enable a
person to journey around the world well within the incubation period
of the serious infectious diseases. The occurrence of smallpox in Wandsworth
only three years ago was a grim reminder of the vulnerability of
any part of the globe to such dangerous infections. Indeed, the low
level of the state of vaccination against smallpox in this country, the
poor state of dental health, and the daily occurrence of preventable
disease and injury bear striking testimony to the vital need for more
intensive health education of both the individual and the community.
Eternal vigilance remains as much the price of health as it does of
freedom.
The overall objective. Good health is the goal and only liberty
itself can be regarded as more precious. The positive joys of physical
and mental well-being are vividly conveyed in the words of a nine
teenth century poet:—
"First of all I claim good health: to feel mere life is a pleasure;
to enjoy the moving of one's limbs and exercising one's bodily
powers; to play as it were with sun and wind and rain; yes the
wherewithal to be well formed, straight limbed, straightly knit and
expressive of countenance."
To promote and preserve good health is indeed worth a very special
effort.