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Health Education to Organisations and Establishments
Talks were given to various organisations usually outside normal working hours, to such groups as parent
teachers' associations, a teacher training college and voluntary organisations on such topics as general health,
statutory services, child development, sex education, drugs,~smoking and first aid.
Health propaganda and displays in Council premises and on public notice boards is part of the day-to-day activity
of the section. The section has a wide variety of limited supply of teaching aids which it loans to schools and
organisations. An audio-visual aid catalogue is widely distributed and is in the process of being revised and
brought up-to-date for 1971.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES - W.T. Orton, Deputy Medical Officer of Health
Diphtheria
There were no cases in Haringey, but there was some anxiety about an outbreak in another part of London,
especially since it was known that about a third of the children in this borough who were entitled to immunisation
had not been brought to their doctors or clinics to receive it.
There is still a widely held misconception that diphtheria no longer exists, and newspaper reports of outbreaks
in other boroughs or other parts of the country have so far largely failed to shake it. But possibly warnings may
be reinforced by evidence that the danger can arise from yet another source, the Continent of Europe. In many
countries there the infection has not been brought under the same degree of control as it has in the British
Isles. For example Italy had 1,724 cases in 1967. In the face of this, parents might wish to check whether their
children have been immunised before taking them on their next continental holiday. Although there have
been no examples of infection from Europe recently, who wants to be the first ?
Cholera
The possibility of this disease occurring in a British tourist has been hinted in this Annual Report a number of
times. The first case occurred this year and involved a man from Wales, who was fortunantely not seriously ill.
But with tourism extending increasingly in developing countries, others may follow, and travel agents and their
customers would do well to be on their guard.
In September of this year, because of the international spread of this disease, the Department of Health
introduced regulations which required people arriving in this country from cholera endemic areas to be kept
under surveillance for five days, unless they had valid certificates stating that they had been vaccinated against
it. Six people were followed up in Haringey.
Poliomyelitis
There were no notifications of this illness in Haringey residents. The one case that appears in our records was a
child resident in a Middle Eastern country who took ill and was flown here for treatment.
Smallpox
The Health Department undertook the surveillance of 36 people coming into this country from smallpoxendemic
areas without valid vaccination certificates. Consultant advice was sought with regard to two patients
suffering from illnesses resembling smallpox, but the diagnosis was excluded in both cases.
Smallpox will continue to be a menace in this country as long as it exists in other parts of the world. The low
incidence of the infection has in recent years been due largely to the control exercised by our port health
authorities. The World Health Organisation Report on smallpox in Europe between January, 1961, and
September, 1970, underlines the need for continual vigilance. There were 391 cases of smallpox in Europe
during this ten year period arising from the introduction of the disease on 28 occasions. The United Kingdom
experienced the greatest number of these, 9, and the Federal Republic of Germany came second with 7.
Twenty originated in Asia, 5 in Africa. Almost all the importations were by air — 23 of the 26 for which the
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