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9
affected. It is assumed, but unfortunately cannot be proved for certain,
that the imitation cream was infected indirectly by imported Chinese egg
products. So ended " The Case of the Chinese Eggs."
Some years ago a party of English tourists became infected on a boattrip
up the Rhine; this year a party became ill with food-poisoning at the
end of a trip to Norway. Most of the tourists in both cases did not live
in llford, but we got to know of the outbreak first and much work is
involved in informing local medical officers of health all over the country
in an attempt to obtain a coherent picture of the outbreak.
Although these alimentary disorders are notifiable as food-poisoning,
dysentery and enteric fever, many of the minor cases do not come to the
attention of the general practitioner or the medical officer of health. In
order to get some indication of the possible extent of this trouble a survey
was conducted by the sanitary inspectorate. A random sample of 535
adults and children, covering the whole borough, were visited, and note
taken of any individuals who had had diarrhoea and vomiting in the four
weeks prior to July 7th. There were 28 such, and if we assume that a
similar proportion applies to the whole borough, about 9,000 had some
sickness in that period, during which we only had 14 notifications from
local doctors.
In periods of heavy rain in llford the sewers cannot cope with the
excess of water. There is flooding of gardens and houses with crude
sewage which cannot be considered a position that any medical officer of
health can view with equanimity. The borough has plans and has already
started to remedy this matter, and although expensive, the project is
essential. It is to be firmly hoped that the Ministry of Housing and Local
Government will continue to allow this project to proceed, credit-squeeze
or no credit-squeeze.
Health Visitors.
The Health Visiting staff is. for the first time for many years, nearly
attaining the number on establishment. The scope of their work is widening
and in the last year we have initiated a toddlers' clinic and infant
welfare centre staffed by health visitors and not doctors. At Manford Way
there is held a Social and Discussion Group with mothers and films and
film strips have been shown. We find that the Health Visitor is the main
co-ordinating worker in dealing with the few problem families in the
town, and that her contacts with the various workers in this field enable
us to reduce to a minimum formal case committees, although such committees,
failing County Council leadership, are held on local initiative.
Boys and girls who are tuberculin positive when tested after volunteering
for B.C.G. vaccination have been infected previously some time in their
lives with tuberculosis, and the onerous task of searching for a possible
source of infection among their contacts is now being regularly undertaken
by the health visitors. After years of striving it seems that King George
Hospital will at last allow the health visitor to have some effective liaison
with their paediatric department, as has existed for some time with the
Maternity Hospital. As stated earlier in this preface, we hope the family
doctor will avail himself of the services of the health visitor, and the
latter's contact with local hospital staffs and their patients should make
this G.P.-H.V. co-operation more useful.
Health Education and Public Relations.
To deal with these related matters an interdepartmental committee
now functions. Among the projects in hand is an offer we have made to
a number of voluntary societies in the town to come and talk to them.
An approach has been made to 95 such societies (even that number is far
from the borough total), and the response so far has been satisfactory (we
would not care for it to be overwhelming!).
We would like to have even more help from the schools in regard to
health education than we have at present . It has been found that secondary
school girls are extremely interested in child welfare. Boys (and girls too)