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8
With the powerful weapons in the hands of the family doctor to avoid or
to treat secondary infections which caused so much harm, measles is no
longer the public health problem it was. Whooping cough too which
caused so much damage to young children is far less of a menace today.
Part at least of this will be the result of the very general practice of small
children being immunised against it. The war saw a marked deterioration
in the situation as regards tuberculosis. In 1941 there were 349 notifications
and 120 deaths. There were even more notifications in some of
the post war years, but later the decline set in, the numbers falling so
much that in 1959 there were only 102 notifications and 6 deaths. The
steady improvement in regard to this disease has completely altered the
picture of the pre-war years when there were not sufficient beds in
hospitals and sanatoria for sufferers. Although it is steadily being overcome,
it is still today a formidable complaint because of the numbers who
continue to succumb and the chronicity of the infection. Today, more
cases are being detected for the first time in the middle-aged or the elderly,
especially men. These probably are suffering as a result of the conditions
in which they lived twenty-five years ago. If this is the explanation, then it
must be some years yet before there is an appreciable fall in the number
of new cases. In some of these diseases, those concerned in their prevention
have been given powerful weapons to bring about an immunity. In some
of them, as is the case in many other illnesses, new powerful methods of
treatment have become available. In the case of tuberculosis there is today
the advantage of both benefits and it is no longer necessary to rely on
putting the patient in the best surroundings to enable him to overcome
his illness. There are some infections though in which the situation is less
satisfactory than it was. There was, of course, in 1947, the nation-wide
attack of acute poliomyelitis. This was brought under control by means
of immunisation of the most susceptible of the population but is so far
from being stamped out that since 1947 there has not been a single week
in which there have not been some new cases. The numbers of persons
notified as suffering from food poisoning and of dysentery are greater
than before the war. Dysentery has altered in character, being now spread
not so much by infected food as by close contact of susceptibles with
cases or carriers. The large numbers of notifications of food poisoning
are to be accounted for in part by the feeding out of many people, by the
greater attention paid to this complaint, and by the availability of the
Public Health Laboratory Service, making the condition recognisable.
While in the 1930's the work of those in the Public Health Department
was far from being taken up with alleviating the statutory public
health nuisances, they nevertheless occupied much of the time of the
Inspectors. Today, in such a district as this, they are mostly relatively
unimportant. Instead of dealing with smoke nuisances caused mostly by
the factory chimney, today's aim is by stages to have the district covered
by a series of Smoke Control Orders with a view ultimately to virtually
eliminating smoke emanating from the factory shaft or the domestic
chimney. Instead of having to be concerned with the grosser manifestations
of unfitness of food, the aim today is the enlightenment of those
handling food and of the householders with a view to raising the