London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
East Ham 1953
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for East Ham]
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29
Dysentery shewed a high number of notifications in 1953 and one suspects
the actual number of infected individuals was probably much higher than the
285 recorded,, Transient illness and diarrhoea is often made light of by
more spartan sufferers, and the danger here lies in the spread by faulty
personal hygiene, to a circle of contacts very difficult to control.
The sufferer laid low, who takes to his bed, is not the real problem,
for he will receive proper investigation and treatment and be surrounded
by an adequate hygienic barrier. But our more stole infected individual
will rarely seek treatment and if he must continue at his work, then it
behoves him to redouble his efforts at impeccable personal hygiene.
No person who works with children or in a canteen, restaurant, food
factory, or food shop, should go to work with the now very well known
dysenteric symptoms unless and until seen and advised by a doctor.
The numbers of new oases of tuberculosis notified during the two years under review were as follows :-
| Pulmonary— | 1953 | 1954 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Males | 64 | 74 | ||
| Females | 62 | 126 | 53 | 127 |
| Non-Pulmonary | Males | 6 | 3 | |
| Females | 6 | 9 | ||
| 12 | 12 | |||
| Totals .. | 138 | 139 |
Details of these notifications are set out in Tables 11 and 12.
The significant Increase in the number of notifications of Pulmonary
and Non-Pulmonary Tuberculosis (23 or 11.2 per cent increase over 1952)
shews that the attack rate of this scourge Is not yet greatly altered
although the cure rate and death rate are both substantially Improved by
modern methods of therapy, surgery and nursing.
The lesson to be drawn from these figures is that in our borough we
must not relax our vigilance in searching out every possible infected
individual and surrounding him by a zone of hygiene, until he ceases to
spit or discharge the live germs of tuberculosis.
Every adult, which for this purpose must include all young persons who
have ceased attendance at school, should make it a personal duty to undergo
chest examination annually by the Mass Radiography Unit in the area.
Not only could this be considered a personal effort in community hygiene,
but also there are other good reasons for the annual screening. Such conditions
as early cancer of the lung or unsuspected cardio vascular disease
might be uncovered, and treatment promptly applied may well prolong life for
many years.