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CHAPTER III.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
1. SERVICES PROVIDED, Notification, investigation,
pamphlets issued on the various infectious diseases, exclusion
from school of patients and contacts, advice re milk handlers—
Disinfection—Hospitalisation generally at Hendon Isolation
Hospital or Neasden Hospital, re puerperal pyrexia and ophthalmia
neonatorum, Emergency Bed Service, re poliomyelitis at Royal
National Orthopaedic Hospital, re smallpox as arranged by the
Regional Hospital Board—Notification of tuberculosis—Weekly and
quarterly returns to the Registrar-General and County Medical
Officer—Authentication of travellers' inoculation state—Food
poisoning notification and investigation—Scabies, arrangements
with Royal Borough of Kensington—Complete bacteriological service
available at Central Public Health Laboratory, Colindale,
outfits distributed from Public Health Department.
2. There is little to note in this Section for the year, as the
absence of any unusual infectious disease and the lack of any
major outbreak of notifiable disease have not occasioned serious
concern during the year. The incidence of common infections of
infancy varies slightly from time to time and the figures in the
statistical appendix indicate that the experience in 1953 was not
unusual or in any way adverse.
It will be seen from figures later in the chapter that there was
one outbreak of food poisoning of which the Department was
aware, involving 80 cases, although all of these were mild and
transient. There is no doubt that a number of mild cases and
of mild food poisoning outbreaks occur where the symptoms are so
transient that medical attention is not called and the cases, therefore,
are not notified. It would be a help in tracing the source of
contamination if such cases could be brought to the notice of the
Department at a very early stage when remains of the food eaten
may well be available for bacteriological investigation. The
result of these investigations would enable advice to be given
to the kitchen staff where the outbreak had originated and would
enlarge our knowledge of sources of infection and enable us to
give more detailed advice to the community generally.
3. The supervision of contacts landing from ship or aeroplane
called for routine surveillance of 4 persons regarding smallpox and
Nil persons regarding typhoid fever. Constant vigilance must be
exercised on persons arriving from infected foreign areas and this
supervision must be given with discretion and understanding.
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