London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Walthamstow 1937

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Walthamstow]

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37
''The disinfestation and/or the destruction is carried out by
the appropriate department of the Council, who receives a duplicate
list of the articles to be treated.
"Early on the day of removal, the articles listed, are collected
from the old address of the prospective tenant and destroyed or disinfested
as the case may be. The articles disinfested are delivered
later in the day to the new Council House and are available for use
of the tenant.
"When the family has been rehoused and, by the above means,
is in possession of clean furniture, the Social Worker visits constantly,
first to point out the facilities available to prevent
reinfestation, some of which are quite a novelty to families accustomed
to rooms devoid of all sanitary conditions and later to
inspect and to ensure that the housewife is making use of her new
conveniences and maintaining a clean house.
"In cases where Council Houses have been disinfested, the Social
Worker again calls regularly and advises on hygienic methods and
on the prevention of a recurrence of the pests. In this way tenants
are encouraged and persuaded to maintain and take a pride in
possessing clean comfortable houses:."
E.—INSPECTION AND SUPERVISION OF FOOD.
(a) Milk Supply.
Routine phosphatase tests are being carried out on samples of
pasteurised milk more particularly to control the efficiency of the
three plants licenced in the Borough.
During 1937 your Council decided to inform the Ministry of
Health that it supported the promotion of legislation to secure the
compulsory pasteurisation of milk.

T he number of notifications or non-pulmonary tuberculosis (which it is reasonable to assume should show some relation to the extent of tuberculous infection of milk) during 1937, amounted to 25. The following table shows the position during the last 16 years.

Year.Non-pulmonary NotificationsTuberculosis Deaths.Year.Non-pulmonary Notifications.Tuberculosis Deaths.
1937251219295217
1936271419283615
193541619274214
1934341519265518
1933451119255826
1932341419245618
1931401319235726
193034919223814
Average forAverage for
8 year3511.758 years4918