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I cannot leave the subject of Tuberculosis, however, without
referring to the pasteurisation of milk. There are 25 firms in Enfield
selling pasteurised milk and samples have been tested regularly
throughout the year. It is argued that pasteurisation, if it be
efficient, destroys completely the tubercle bacillus, and it is also
suggested that Tuberculosis can be, and is in fact, disseminated by
milk. On the other hand for pasteurisation to be efficient, there
must be supplied efficient plant, adequately maintained, and this
means a highly skilled, well trained permanent staff. In war-time
it is extremely difficult to achieve this ; part-time staff and unskilled
workers are not conducive to high efficiency in pasteurisation.
Venereal Disease.
I am unable to give any statistics for the district ; I can only
say that amongst that class of the community which passes through
our hands from the point of view of medical inspection and treatment,
there has been almost no incidence of the disease. The
classes concerned are children under 5 years of age, school children
and ante-natal and nursing mothers. Adolescents and factory
workers would not be known to me were they to contract Venereal
Disease.
Civil Defence.
In my report for the year 1941, I stated that the Civil Defence
Ambulance Service had been integrated as a corporal part of the
work of the Health Department ; this year I would like to enlarge
somewhat on that statement.
As the Council will realise I am the responsible officer in charge,
both of the Council's Health Service and the Civil Defence Ambulance
and First Aid Post Services. My Deputy for Civil Defence purposes
is a member of the Council's Public Health staff. The clerks in
my department, including Mr. Coulter and Miss Bowyer, are all
concerned in various matters appertaining to civil defence ; there is,
in fact, a unity between the two services.
There is a tendency for the uninitiated to think of a large
number of ambulances standing idle and their personnel unoccupied,
and during the year various suggestions from well-meaning persons
have been placed before me as to how either the one or the other
could be more used.
As regards the vehicles, it must be remembered that strict
economy in petrol and tyres makes it necessary that civil defence
vehicles shall only be used insofar as it is necessary to maintain
them in efficient running order.