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Crayford Urban District Council.
To the Chairman and Members of the Urban District
Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report
for the year 1950.
The year under review was, on the whole, a
satisfactory one from the point of view of health in that
the incidence of infectious disease was low, with the
exception of pulmonary tuberculosis, 54 new cases of which
were notified during the year, compared with 46 in 1949.
There can be little doubt that cases of this kind are
preventable by improvements in housing, by isolation of
chronic cases and the extension of immunisation, by
means of B.C.G. vaccine to children and others specially
exposed to the risk of infection. Much is being done but
much more will have to be done before this scourge is
reduced to the level of impotence of other infectious diseases
which were once a serious menance and have now,
largely, disappeared from our midst. During the year the
Housing Committee assisted ten tuberculous families in
regard to rehousing; a mass radiography survey was carried
out in the district and, recently, a Tuberculosis
After-Care Committee for Crayford has been brought into
being. No case of diphtheria occurred in Crayford during
1953 and, in fact, only two cases of this disease have:
occurred in the District since 1942.
The Clean Food Campaign which the Council are
carrying out in conjunction with the Boroughs of Bexley
and Erith continued to make progress during the year,
and Codes of Practice were formulated for the majority
of food trades. A successful Clean Food Exhibition was
planned in the latter part of the year and was held in
May, 1951. This Campaign represents a long term effort
in Health Education and, although this work tends to be;
slow and unspectacular, it is well worth pursuing and will,
it is hoped, result, in the future, in improved standards
of food hygiene in the area. Incidently, no case of food
poisoning was notified in 1950 compared with 5 cases in
1949.
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