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MEDICAL OFFICERS ANNUAL REPORT.
Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
Hayes, Middlesex.
May, 1957.
To The Chairman and Members of the Council,
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
A glance at the tables will show that there has been
relatively little infectious disease in the district this
year, the greatest incidence being that of upper respiratory
infections. The number of notifications of measles is again
very low. Although the biennial epidemic nature of the
disease has been known for some time, it has not usually
been evident in the statistics for a district such as this.
Since 1953. however, the alternation in successive years
of large with small numbers of notifications has become
very marked. The majority of cases have occurred in children
between the ages of 4-7 years. I expect these
phenomena to continue, certainly for another year.
There was some increase in the notification of dysentery
and food poisoning but 15 of these cases occurred in
Germany among a party returning to Hayes. In spite of this,
the incidence of these disorders is of some concern to me,
as the number of notifications received is no real indication
of the amount of disease actually prevalent. The
majority of doctors naturally do not bother to notify every
case of diarrhoea they see, and furthermore many people
with minor symptoms do not even see the doctor. As soon
as word gets around that the sanitary man will come
snooping round and keep your children away from school for
weeks every effort is made to avoid the eye of authority.
Any attempt at control of people carrying the germ is thus
rendered farcical and the time has come when the whole
position should be reconsidered.
By special request of some members of the Public
Health Committee an attempt has been made to show the age
incidence of deaths from certain diseases. The table re
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