View report page

The Council is responsible for one of the most important
measures aimed at combating this disease, viz., rehousing, and also
for disinfection, but the County Council bears the responsibility
for all other preventive measures except the treatment of cases,
which is that of the Regional Hospital Boards.
Schemes are being carried out for the immunisation of certain
sections of the population, and for tracing contacts of infectious
cases among school children. During the second half of 1954,
the parents of children attending the County Council's schools who
were 13 years of age, were asked if they would agree to their
children being tested and, if necessary, given B.C.G. immunisation.
As a result, 73% accepted and 89% of these children were immunised.
In 1955 a similar offer will be made to the parents of local
school children in this age group in further schools.
The Mass X-Ray Unit operated for a period in Croydon
during the year but a visit to this District could not be arranged.
The local Tuberculosis Clinic is held every Monday from 2-4 p.m.
at the Surrey County Council Clinic, 62 Whytecliffe Road, Purley,
with one additional session each week.
There is still no sign of progress in the erection of the anticipated
self-contained Chest Clinic which it is hoped will be built
in Purley Hospital grounds. The provision of this Clinic is
urgently required as the County Council Clinic is being seriously
over-used.
PUBLIC HEALTH ACT, 1936, SECTION 172.
PUBLIC HEALTH (PREVENTION OF TUBERCULOSIS)
REGULATIONS, 1925.
No action has been required under these powers during
recent years.
NON-NOTIFIABLE INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
The group of non-notifiable infectious diseases including influenza
again accounted for very few deaths.
Excluding the death returns, the only information as to the
presence of outbreaks of non-notifiable infectious disease is obtained
from the returns from the nurseries and public elementary
schools. As judged by these, there were scattered cases of
chickenpox and mumps throughout the year with appreciable outbreaks
of the former in Sanderstead in February/March and
Selsdon and Chipstead Valley in November/December. Mumps
was most marked in Sanderstead and Chipstead Valley in the
Spring and in Old Coulsdon in the Summer and Autumn. Only
one case of ringworm was reported and no serious outbreak of
influenza occurred.
Home visitation and exclusion from school are still the two
chief methods relied upon to prevent the spread of these diseases.
Treatment in hospital is provided when required owing to social
or physical complications being present, but records of these admissions
are rarely received.
22