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Details of the number of cases and attendances at the two Cleansing Stations are
given below.

International Certificates of Vaccination and Inoculation.
Persons proceeding abroad are required to produce, in certain countries, evidence
of recent successful vaccination or inoculation. The signatures on these certificates
are not acceptable by the countries concerned unless certified by the Medical Officer
of Health as being the signature of a doctor practising within the area. During the
year, 274 certificates were authenticated by me. Of these, 218 were in relation to
smallpox, 43 to cholera, and 13 to typhoid fever.
LABORATORY FACILITIES
A large part of the Council's pathological and allied work in relation to the
diagnosis, prevention and control of infectious diseases is undertaken at the Southern
Group Laboratory at the Park Hospital, Lewisham. This service is provided by
the Public Health Laboratory Service on behalf of the Medical Research Council.
Specimens sent to this laboratory include samples of milk and ice cream,
samples of food in suspected food poisoning cases, specimens of meat from the
abattoir and samples of swimming bath water. The following summary relates
to the work carried out by the laboratory on behalf of the Council during 1953:—
Food (which includes animal specimens from abattoirs, whole bovine
blood and blood plasma) 73
Ice Cream (Methylene blue test) 25
Milk (Methylene blue, phosphatase and turbidity tests) 313
Milk bottles (colony count) 3
Water, from swimming baths, children's paddling pools and boating lakes 70
Total 484
The examination of specimens of human origin (mainly swab examinations)
for the general practitioners in the Borough, and also specimens referred to the
hospital from local clinics, is undertaken by the Woolwich Group Hospital Management
Committee. The work was formerly carried out at the Memorial Hospital
laboratory, but is now being undertaken at the Brook Hospital. General practitioners
referred 27 sputum specimens for examination and the hospital carried out
126 other sputum examinations during the year. One hundred and twenty-two
nasal and throat swabs were referred to the hospital by general practitioners for
examination and 7 other specimens. This laboratory also carried out the examination
of 108 faecal specimens.
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