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5
Mr, Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors,
In presenting my Annual Report for the year 1956 I
would like to draw attention to certain items of special
interest.
It will be remembered that during the Autumn of 1956
an outbreak of Poliomyelitis occurred and one school was
particularly affected. In looking back on the outbreak we
were fortunate to have had such a mild type of infection
and no deaths occurred as a result of the outbreak. It is
also of interest that whilst the location was around one
school a number of individual cases occurred at other
schools at about the same time, nevertheless the total
number of poliomyelitis cases were in fact less in 1956
than they were in 1955, We cannot therefore consider 1956
as a poliomyelitis epidemic year as far as Ealing is con
cerned.
The new developments with Poliomyelitis vaccine have
now proved themselves and there is every reason to look
forward hopefully to the elimination of this illness from
the population It is pleasant to know that the enter
prise of a firm in the Borough of Ealing is largely respon
sible for the British made vaccine which is playing such
a large part in the present campaign for immunisation
against Poliomyelitis.
Progress is steadily being made in our Clean Pood
work and a statement on the present position is in the
body of this Report It has been a matter of considerable
encouragement to us to find that the Clean Food film
strip, prepared by our own Health Department, has had
such a wide distribution throughout the World and has
shown some profit to the Borough Council, It was always
anticipated that persistent and patient propaganda and
education were the strongest factors in any campaign for
Clean Pood and our policy has been directed to that end.
Whilst Ealing has, in the main, been extremely fortunate
in having so few atmospheric pollution problems to
deal with, heavy industry has been established in a few
places for very many years, This has led to certain difficult
problems which were born out of an absence, a generation
ago, of Town Planning powers. The Health Committee
and your officers are well aware of the need for close
vigilence in any atmospheric pollution problems and much
work has been done during the past year to maintain the