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of symptomless carriers, but with prompt isolation and treatment of these and the observance
of strict hygienic precautions by their relatives and friends, the disease came under control.
A fall in the figures for vaccination is apparent, and this is a bad thing as smallpox is
still a danger and is a common and fatal disease in some parts of the world. There is an
improvement in the figures for immunisation against diphtheria, and this is a good thing,
for it is considered that in order to keep a district free from diphtheria, a 75% proportion
of infant immunisation is necessary, and this disease which, like smallpox, is a menace in
many foreign countries, is also still present in this country, cases and deaths occurring every
year.
With regard to tuberculosis, it seems from the notifications graph as if at last all the
efforts towards the improvement of this disease are beginning to have some effect. New
methods of discovery of infected persons, including the wide use of mass X-ray and B.C.G.
vaccination, the improvement in housing, improved standards of nutrition, resulting from
the increase in the knowledge of the people in the importance of adequate and varied diet
as much as from increased prosperity, and the improved methods of isolation and the new drug
treatments may all have played their parts in achieving this tuberculosis reduction, which
appears to be occurring also in many parts of the British Commonwealth. The disease,
however, is by no means conquered yet, and the death rate from tuberculosis for 1954 is no
lower than in 1953.
The problems of old people living in solitary or neglected conditions are still a matter
of concern, and although much work has been done by the voluntary associations in the
Borough, there is need for much more. Two matters with regard to the work being done at
present give satisfaction, one is the increase in the supply of meals to old persons from one
to three per week, and the other is that local chiropodists enthusiastically give much of their
time, and charge low fees, to keep the feet of old age pensioners in such a condition as to
give them comfort and keep them mobile.
The Housing Repairs and Rents Act, which came into force during the year, was
welcome as it gave powers for an increase in the work on the clearance of slums, a matter
very close to the hearts of all public health officers because of the association of bad housing
with ill health and uncleanliness, and a survey of the Borough was started to find how much
slum clearance would be necessary and how much could be done at once. If slums are to
be cleared there must be housing available for the displaced occupants, and it is to be hoped
that no difficulties will arise over this, especially as the problem is not a large one in Southall,
which has grown up so rapidly in the years since the First World War.
An improvement in the figures for known cases of statutory overcrowding was apparent
in 1954, following an increase in the number of Council houses of the larger type becoming
available for big families.
Atmospheric pollution continued to be a topical subject for consideration in the newspapers,
at meetings of the learned societies, and in Parliament where the Beaver Report,
a survey of the problem of atmosphere pollution in Britain, was discussed. Continuous work
was carried on throughout the year, both in the routine observation of atmospheric pollution
as a whole, and on the investigation of particular complaints regarding pollution at individual
sites. The figures show a substantial decline in the overall pollution by smoke and sulphur
dioxide over the whole of the year in this Borough, but an increase in the amount of grit
deposit in the central area.
It was interesting to obtain the final report of the experiment on the Irradiation of the
Upper Air in Schools, which was carried out in Southall. The results showed that while
there was no doubt that disinfection of the air could be carried out by this method, the
value of this disinfection in the prevention of the spread of infectious disease seemed not
to be such as to justify the provision and maintenance of the rather complicated equipment
required. The many findings which were incidental to the experiment concerning the ventilation
of rooms, heating currents, etc., were analysed and will continue to be analysed for
some time to come, and should be of ultimate benefit in further experiments, and to the
community as a whole in many ways.
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