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62
SECTION H.
BIGGIN HILL CIVIL AIRPORT.
When customs facilities were granted to this airport, the local
authority automatically became responsible for setting up a Health
Control unit. A suitable room having been obtained, it was divided
into two to provide both a consulting room and an isolation room.
These rooms had to be furnished and equipped, and arrangements
made for heating and boiling water which itself had to be laid on and
a wash-basin provided.
An approach was made to the three General Practitioners practising
in the area and they agreed to go on a standby duty so that the
airport could always call upon a doctor should the threat of importation
of a serious infectious disease arise. The quarantinable diseases
in which Health Control is interested are Plague, Cholera, Yellow
Fever, Smallpox, Typhus and Relapsing Fever.
A supply of fresh calf lymph for use in case of emergency vaccinations
against smallpox, is kept in a refrigerator by courtesy of
one of the local general practitioners, and the department replaces the
lymph weekly, thus ensuring a constant fresh supply.
So far no calls on the medical staff's services have been made, but
the facilities must of course, be kept in a constant state of readiness,
which necessitates regular cleaning.