View report page

3
INTRODUCTION TO ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1941 .
The work of the Department continued throughout the year
on a basis and. scale comparable with the years before the war.
For the last eight months of the year the Borough was free from
attacks from the air.
The figures from the Registrar General- which are necessary
for calculating the various statistical notes are unlikely to
reach us in time for inclusion in this Report.
There were ho significant outbreaks of Infectious
Disease during the year. The incidence of Diphtheria remained
very low; and there was a sharp drop in the number of cases of
Scarlet Fever notified - but this was only in accord with the
regular periodical rise and fall in incidence which has been
noted in the Borough for many years. There was a limited
outbreak of Typhoid Fever in the early autumn: a special,report
on this was presented to the Public Health Committee at the time
and this has been incorporated in the present Report. Measles
was prevalent in two parts of the Borough in the late,Spring and
early Summer, and Whooping Cough was prevalent in the Autumn and
early Winter.
The number of children immunised against Diphtheria was
much larger than in any previous year, and this increase may beat
tributed to the attention devoted to the subject in the
National Press and by the British Broadcasting Corporation.
This suggests that many people, who have remained quite
uninfluenced by persistent local propaganda, have an implicit
faith in what they read in the newspaper or hear over the
"wireless". Needless to say the Public Health Official welcomes
whole-heartedly, though sometimes with a rather wry smile, such
powerful aid.
a close watch has been kept on the nutrition of the
children. This is a matter which will be of ever-increasing
importance as the months go by. There is undoubtedly an increase
in the number of children whose nutrition is not entirely
satisfactory, and although this has not so far been reflected in
an increase of sickness or invalidity, there are no grounds for
complacency. It is to be hoped that full advantage will be taken
of the arrangements being made by the Education Committee for
providing mid-day meals for the School children, and that in the
near future every child in the elementary schools who needs it
will have the benefit of the extra food which is so essential for
proper growth and development. The Government has made a great
effort to maintain the milk supply for children, and 85 per cent
of the children in attendance have milk at school: there is no
reason why this figure should not be 100 per cent. But
valuable as milk is it cannot entirely take the place of other