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to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government in 1955:
The work of the Bexley, Erith and Crayford Home Safety
Committee continued during the year, with steady propaganda in
the interests of the reduction of accidents in the home, chiefly
through falls and burns and scalds. Officially this responsibility
lies with the Local Health Authority under Section 28 of the
National Health Service Act, 1948 In practice, the local voluntary
committee, closely linked with district Health Department
and the local Council is in a far better strategic position to
increase the public awareness of a problem, the magnitude of
which, both as regards morbidity and mortality exceeds that of
accidents on the roads.
During 1957 three cases of paralytic poliomyelitis were
notified in the Urban District The number of children resident
in the Urban District who received a course of two injections
against this disease, under arrangements made by the Local Health
Authority, was 787. The extension of vaccination to all children
of school age and possibly, in due course, to members of the
public generally may, it is hoped, in years to come, considerably
reduce the ill effects of this annual visitation.
Although, broadly speaking, the incidence of pulmonary
tuberculosis is on the wane, there is evidence to show that much
still remains to be done in the abolition of this incapacitating
and killing disease. The chronic open case in the community and
the undiagnosed case, often in middle-aged and elderly people,
remain two potent sources of infection The main spearheads in
the attack against this disease are the unremitting tracing of
sources of infection, the protection of contacts and young children
by B C.G. inoculation and a more intensive search for new cases
by means of mass miniature radiography
During the latter part of the year influenza of the Asian
type reached epidemic proportions in the Urban District, this
being part of a world epidemic Although widespread, the disease
did not reach the severity which had been anticipated and most
cases were of a relatively mild type, necessitating a few days in
bed followed by a short period of convalescence. Much absenteeism
resulted in factories and in schools from this cause in the Urban
District. Five deaths were recorded as due to influenza during
the year.
6.