View report page

other contacts were negative. In no instance of salmonella infection
was a definite food incriminated, and there would seem to be little
hope of controlling this infection other than by increasing measures
of pasteurisation and heat control of manufactured food products.
Side by side with this, there needs to be further investigation into the
contamination of food from fertilizers and the like. It is believed
that salmonella infection is much more widespread than notifications
indicate.
These inspections or investigations are necessary to protect the
relatives and others who are contacts of the disease or consumers of
the same food. Their value is more obvious in an epidemic than in
isolated incidents, and it is easier to appreciate their intrinsic value if
inadvertently things go wrong than it is if there is little or nothing
to report. Their effectiveness is in direct proportion to the number
and completeness of notifications of a disease. The uncertainty about
the need or value of notifying a particular disease makes this work of
limited value. In this respect, there has never been such uncertainty
as at the present time. Medical Officers await a revision of notifiable
diseases; a more definite policy with regard to scarlet fever and streptococcal
infections and closer liaison with hospital laboratories outside
the public health service.
There was an increase of three new cases of tuberculosis, but
Dr. Madigan's report is reassuring as to the present position with
regard to treatment.
It is to be hoped that the combined approach of family contact
examination, vaccination, mass X-ray of selected groups and new
drugs will, in the next decade, reduce Tuberculosis to the present size
of Diphtheria as a health problem.
Vital Statistics.
The birth rate comparability factor for Beckenham remains the
same. There are no significant alterations in the general birth and
death rates from the previous year, but there was a reduction in the
infant mortality rate due to the decrease of four deaths and an increase
of thirty-six births.
Later in the report a Table shows that these deaths are mainly
in the first week of life and are due to congenital or allied conditions
or immaturity. Prevention of these must depend on studies of the
commencement of life and subsequent development of the embryo.
Such microscopical studies are now a reality.
Though the total of deaths from Cancer remains the same, there
were four less deaths from cancer of the lung. Two deaths from
pulmonary tuberculosis is the lowest ever recorded for the Borough.
It may be noted that the area comparability factor, by which the
crude death rate is multiplied to give a corrected rate, has this year
for Beckenham increased from 0.88 to 0.91. This is because this
year, for the first time, the Registrar-General has made adjustments
especially to take into account the presence of any residential institutions.
After correction, there is no significant alteration in the death
7