View report page

5
simple precautions when travelling abroad. Likewise the three
instances of gonococcal ophthalmic infection in the newborn—with
all the attendant risk of blindness in the absence of prompt treatment—emphasised
only too poignantly that education in human
relationships and the provision of unobtrusive, easily accessible,
confidential (and therefore acceptable) diagnostic and treatment
facilities hold the key to success in the campaign against the
venereal diseases.
The richly deserved tributes paid to Dr. McQueen, the Physician
in charge of the Battersea Chest Clinic, on his retirement after 32
years service locally reflected the success which chest clinics have
achieved in combating the former scourge of tuberculosis and in
coping with the still formidable problems presented by respiratory
disease.
No case of smallpox, diphtheria or poliomyelitis occurred in
Wandsworth in 1971. No greater tribute could be paid to the
value of immunization. Full details of the activities of the Health
Department in this important field will be found in the body of
the Report. In brief, the number of children immunized against
diphtheria, poliomyelitis, tetanus and whooping cough was maintained
at a high level. Predictably, the number of smallpox
vaccinations performed declined appreciably following the implementation
of the recommendation of the Joint Committee on
Vaccination and Immunization that this protection was no longer
necessary as a routine measure—a tribute to the success of the
global smallpox eradication campaign of the World Health Organization.
During the year the number of girls given rubella vaccine
increased markedly, the programme being expanded to include
all in the 11-14 years age group. Less satisfactory was a decline
in the number of children immunized against measles—a tiresome
disease meriting a greater effort to ensure its eradication in the
years ahead. B.C.G. vaccination continued to play an important
part in the departmental programme.
To remain effective the individual protection provided by cholera
vaccine needs to be boosted every six months and here a high
standard of sanitation represents the real safeguard for the community
against the spread of this major communicable disease.
1970 had witnessed the first notification of cholera in this country
for more than half-a-century and last year three further individual
importations of the disease occurred but once again no secondary
cases resulted. Fortunately Wandsworth was not affected. Adequately
protected water supplies and generally satisfactory sanitary
facilities ensured that there would be no repetition of the epidemics
of the nineteenth century which ravaged the whole of Europe.
Environmental health thus remains a key component of a modern
public health programme and it is satisfying to report a year of
solid achievement in Wandsworth. In the spring the Council
approved the streamlining of the normally unspectacular but nonetheless
essential disinfecting and rodent control services with a