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36
of air-raid conditions; whole sections of our people have had to resort
for weeks at a time to nightly shelter life with all its hygienic imperfections,
not least of which has been the war-time habit of sleeping
without fully changing the underclothing.
As a result there has been in the Borough a general increase in
all verminous conditions, whilst Scabies, which before the War had
largely disappeared from civil life, has grown steadily to become a
major problem.
These points are brought out in the following paragraphs.
SCABIES.
During the year 1944, 431 cases were treated at the Health
Centre, as against 290 in the year 1943.
Of these, approximately two-thirds were adults of either sex,
school children being in the minority. Further, the disease has now
broken all precedent by attacking every social class without distinction.
As in previous years, the remedy employed has been Benzyl
Benzoate Emulsion, and the work of treating all scabies cases has been
undertaken by the personnel of the Windham Road First Aid Post,
to whose willingness and patience much credit is due.
One of the difficulties encountered in stamping out this scourge
has been that of persuading the whole of the members of any
affected household to submit to treatment irrespective of whether
they be showing signs of active infestation at the time or not. On
the other hand, granted this co-operation, experience shows that one
single application of the remedy will be followed by cure in no fewer
than 95% of cases,