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From September onwards, owing to the destructive " rocket " bombing, another
350 food premises were damaged, rendering about 15 tons of food of all descriptions
unfit for human consumption.
Thus, throughout the year, nearly 800 shops and food premises were damaged,
and approximately 23 tons of food made unfit for human consumption.
PREVALENCE AND CONTROL OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
Notifications. The total number of notifications received was 2,180. They
relate to the following diseases :—

Diphtheria. There was a fall in the number of notifications, due partly to the
evacuation of children in the latter half of the year. Efforts to secure the immunisation
of as many children between the ages of 1 and 5 as possible were continued.
Mothers were invited to take such children to special sessions arranged at welfare
centres or first-aid posts, or to make use of the Council's " family doctor " scheme.
The number of children immunised under the Council's scheme was, 1,346 ; in
addition, 332 school children were immunised by Medical Officers of the London
County Council. Owing to re-evacuation, these figures are considerably below
those for 1943. Even so it was estimated that 75 per cent, of the child population
of Woolwich had been immunised by the end of the year.
Whooping Cough. 207 children were immunised under the scheme established
in 1943.
Tuberculosis. The number of formal notifications of tuberculosis received for
the year was 248, that is 44 fewer than in 1943. The number of persons examined
for the first time at the Dispensaries was 1,356, of these, 164 were found to be suffering
from tuberculosis. The number of contacts who attended for examination was
268, 12 of them proved to be tuberculous. The total number of attendances at the
dispensaries was 5,602. Patients referred to the dispensaries by medical practitioners
totalled 722 ; by medical boards, 103 ; and as a result of mass radiography surveys,
70. There were 1,008 cases on the Tuberculosis Register on the 31st December.
4,649 visits by nurses were made to homes of patients and 56 by the Tuberculosis
Officer or by an Assistant Medical Officer.