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1 insurance official,
1 motor driver,
1 Post Office engineer,
1 dressmaker,
4 unclassified.
Of the four "unclassified" cases, one has died, one has left the
district, and two did not follow any occupation. In no case was
there any marked degree of poverty.
It is further known that, of the 69 cases of tuberculosis
reported during the year, only seven occurred in houses which
could be classified as overcrowded. Although the evidence is
negative so far as Southgate is concerned, it will still be obvious
that the Borough Council, as a sanitary authority responsible for
environmental hygiene, must do what it can, not only to maintain
living conditions in the Borough at the highest possible level but
to improve the conditions under which cases of tuberculosis or
contacts of cases of tuberculosis are required to live. In this
connection, the scheme considered by the Borough Council
whereby a block of flats will be set aside for families in which a
case of tuberculosis has occurred has very much to commend it.
The provision of these flats undoubtedly represents a concrete
contribution to the prevention of tuberculosis, and is a social
experiment which deserves whole-hearted support.
It is a tragic corollory to our present lack of treatment facilities
that cases of open tuberculosis, both early and late, still
have to wait for beds in sanatoria. This is not a matter over
which the Borough Council has any control, and I understand
that it is receiving the urgent attention of Regional Hospital
Boards. Facilities for the early diagnosis of tuberculosis, particularly
through the medium of Mass X-ray units and the like,
are improving but could still, with advantage, be extended. Until
these facilities are entirely adequate, and until immediate treatment
can be guaranteed for all patients discovered to be suffering
from tuberculosis, the position will remain unsatisfactory. It
must again be stressed, however, that the prevention of tuberculosis
lies further back than that. Prevention will always be
governed by such conditions as housing, overcrowding, nutrition,
and the purity of our milk supply. These are all matters
in which the Borough Council must be interested. It will therefore
be obvious that we have an important part to play in the
prevention of a disease which is one of the greatest menaces
to health and to life itself.
Food Poisoning.—Opportunity was taken during the year
to remind general practitioners that cases of acute food poisoning
must be notified to the local sanitary authority. In spite of this,
very few notifications were received. This does not mean that
food poisoning has become a rare type of infection. It merely
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