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Disinfection.
During the year, 178 rooms and 596 articles of bedding (mattresses, blankets, sheets, bolsters,
pillows, etc.), together with 900 books, were disinfected, and 326 dressing drums from a local hospital
were sterilised.
The Department continued to be asked by residents in the Borough to certify that worn clothing
intended for despatch to foreign countries was free from infection. Disinfection was carried out only
when clothing had actually been in contact with infectious disease but, during the year, 235 certificates,
relating to a total of 3,058 articles, were issued to indicate that no infectious disease had been reported
for at least one month at the premises from which the clothing was purported to have come.
Exclusion from Work of Contacts of Infectious Disease.
Both by Regulations made under the National Insurance Act, 1946, and the Public Health Infectious
Disease Regulations, 1953, persons may be excluded from work and qualify for National Health
sickness benefit if, in the opinion of the Medical Officer of Health, they are contacts or carriers of
disease and it is necessary to exclude them from work in order to prevent the spread of infection.
These regulations apply particularly to food handlers in shops and to cooks, kitchen hands and others
employed in cafes, canteens and restaurants. During the year three certificates were issued.
International Certificates of Vaccination.
Persons travelling to most countries abroad have to produce evidence of recent vaccination against
certain prescribed diseases. For this purpose an international certificate of vaccination is used in
respect of smallpox, cholera and yellow fever. Methods of protection previously known as
" inoculation " are now described internationally as vaccination.
Under the terms of Ministry of Health circulars Nos. 60/48 and 20/52 the Medical Officer of Health
is required to authenticate the signatures on certificates issued by doctors practising within his district.
During the year signatures on 5,011 of these certificates were authenticated. Occasionally certificates
signed by doctors practising in other districts (as far distant as Eire and Scotland) are submitted by
travellers due to leave for abroad the same day and in such cases great inconvenience and delay would
be caused to them by sending the certificates to the local Medical Officer of Health for authentication.
To avoid this, the doctor concerned is contacted by telephone and, upon his assurance that the
certificate has in fact been signed by him, the documents are authenticated. Telephone charges are
paid by the traveller.
Bacteriological Examinations.
Table 24, page 39 shows the number of specimens examined for the purposes of diagnosis and
also indicates the organisms in relation to which the examinations were made.