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9
at the same time as the new accommodation for the rodent operatives
who had been "housed" in rather unsatisfactory premises at
"Cottesmore," thus at long last a neat, compact health service unit,
consisting of mortuary, disinfector, rodent operatives office and
mortuary keeper's house, was completed and occupied.
The table showing the incidence of notifiable infectious
diseases indicates a satisfactory state of affairs for the year.
The numbers of cases notified during the year fell considerably
and, with the exception of pulmonary tuberculosis, there were no
deaths. Mention was made last year of a new measles vaccine
which was undergoing research trials and, in June, these trials were
carried a stage further when the Medical Research Council advised
that a large scale field trial to gauge the efficiency of different
vaccines, and investigate the associated epidemiological problems,
should be conducted in selected areas during the autumn. Due to
the fact that an epidemic was expected early in 1965, speed was
the key word and, when one considers the amount of work involved
in registering, inoculating and following up the children eligible for
this trial, words of praise must go to all the staff who worked so
extremely hard and efficiently to make it a success.
The outbreak of typhoid fever in Aberdeen, associated with a
can of corned beef from the Argentine, had its repercussion in Health
Departments all over the country. The Public Health Inspectors
were involved in a great deal of work—routine in nature—but
nevertheless extremely important.
Another event of importance in preventive medicine occurred
during the year and that was a visit to the Borough of the Mobile
Mass X-ray Service. The visit was well advertised by means of
posters, leaflets and notices in the local press. The visit was for a
period of five weeks and in order to give as wide a coverage as
possible, the units were stationed in eleven different sites within the
Borough. Facilities were also offered to the personnel of many
local firms. In all, 16,300 people took advantage of the service
and had a chest x-ray. This number may seem a bit disappointing
when compared with the actual population of 210,250 but the
percentage is about the average usually obtained from public
campaigns of this kind.
For some time I had been concerned about the conditions of
the Assembly Halls at North Harrow and Belmont, especially with
regard to the kitchen sections. Both are war-time structures erected
during a period when building materials were in short supply, and
as a result they fell below the standard required by the Food