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Pulmonary Tuberculosis
Thirty-one immigrant passengers (24 Commonwealth, 7 Alien) were refused landing and were
repatriated on account of pulmonary tuberculosis, which had been discovered on x-ray at London
Airport. Twelve of these cases came from India and eleven from Pakistan; Hongkong, Jamaica
and Italy making up the remainder. Two passengers (one from India and one from Antigua) were
discovered to have active tuberculosis but despite recommendations for refusal, they were allowed
to land on humanitarian grounds.
Two passengers (one from Uganda and one from Kuwait) with active tubercle were landed and
admitted immediately into hospital. Five passengers were landed and on follow-up were subsequently
found to be suffering from active disease. Eleven passengers who were landed were referred for
investigation to Chest Clinics as their x-rays were suspicious.
Other Conditions
On April 19th, two persons fell ill with food poisoning, one a passenger and the other a
member of the crew on the same flight. Both had eaten shell-fish.
On October 20th, a British seaman from Nigeria was admitted to Greenwich Hospital from the
airport as a suspected case of typhoid. This proved to be a case of malaria.
Two cases of chickenpox and one case of measles were other infectious conditions encountered
at different times.
X-ray Unit
The 100 m/m Odelca camera was installed early in 1965 and the unit started to function on
February 12th. The agreed policy was to restrict x-rays to Commonwealth immigrants in possession
of entry vouchers, arriving in Passenger Building No. 3. At first x-rays were restricted only to those
voucher-holders, of whose chests the medical inspector was suspicious during the course of his
examination. Later, as staff became available and more proficient, more and more voucher-holders
were x-rayed as a routine measure, and it is hoped that in 1966 there will be few voucher-holders
who are not x-rayed.
The question was considered of extending routine x-rays to cover immigrant voucher-holders
arriving in Passenger Building No. 1, but it was not found to be practicable. The duty medical officer
in that building, however, is at liberty to send over for x-ray such passengers as he considers
require it, as a result of his examination, and during the year 77 such passengers were x-rayed.
During the period February 14th—December 31st, a total of 2,667 immigrants were x-rayed,
comprising 160 Aliens and 2,507 Commonwealth passengers. Whilst in March only 99 out of 732
immigrant voucher-holders examined, were x-rayed, in December 345 out of 405 were x-rayed. It
is unlikely that 100% x-ray coverage will ever be obtained, or indeed is necessary. Many immigrants
arrive with x-ray films which have recently been taken or with radiologists' reports relating
to recent x-rays. Some of these can obviously be accepted and it would not be necessary to subject
the immigrant to a further x-ray.
AIRCRAFT EMERGENCIES
The excellent record which London Airport had held for fifteen years in regard to civil passengercarrying
aircraft was broken when, in the early morning of October 27th, a B.E.A. Vanguard
crashed on the main runway in patchy fog. There were no survivors from this accident.
On July 20th, a Tu 104 belonging to the Czechoslovak Airlines overshot the runway and
crashed through the fence on to the Perimeter Road. Happily there were no casualties on this
occasion.
During the year, the number of aircraft movements in and out of the airport was 206,000.
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