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57
Dysentery (Sonne),
A total of 8 oases of dysentery were notified during 1962 compared
with 7 during 1961, These notifications were all in respect
of individuals or individual families, No outbreaks occurred during
the year,
Although the type of cases which occur are normally sporadic
individual dysentery cases there is always an awareness that such
infection can be widely spread by contagion from person to person,
and that the illness can have a serious effect on babies and
debilitated persons,
Most of the notifications received concern children of school
age and under, requiring treatment at home with appropriate segregation
during the carrier stage either by exclusion from school or day nursery,
No effort is spared to prevent the spread of the disease and
there is close liaison with general medical practitioners who are kept
fully informed of developments including up-to-date information as to
drug sensitivity of organisms,
An essential and important factor undertaken by the publie health
inspectors is the opportunity to stress the necessity for personal
hygiene, especially to those concerned with food handling and the care
of young children. Every effort is also made to ensure that personal
hygiene is intensified and adhered to during outbreaks. Furthermore,
everything possible is done to prevent contact of individuals, in
particular children, with persons outside the infected home until the
whole family is free from infection,
Measures such as these tend to decrease the spread of the disease
and also act as an education in personal hygiene,
Tuberculosis,
In accordance with the national trend the number of new eases of
tuberculosis notified continues to be satisfactorily low, In 1962 in
Kingston 20 eases were reported, all of these referred to lungs,
Compared with 1961, there appears to be very little change when there
were 14. eases of which 13 referred to lungs,
A total of 6,670 persons were x-rayed during a visit of the South
West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board X-Ray Unit in October and
November, (3,030 males -3,640 females),
A total of 5 cases (2 male - 3 female) of active pulmonary tuberculosis
were discovered and referred for treatment or close clinical
supervision,