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This increase reflects the increasing pressures which the venereal disease services throughout
the country have been facing during recent years although as pointed out by the Chief Medical
Officer of the Department of Health & Social Security in his annual report for 1971 nearly half the
case load for the whole of England is dealt with in the Greater London Area.
It will be noticed that the increase in the total figure given above is accounted for chiefly by
conditions other than syphilis and gonorrhoea, the incidence of these diseases remaining relatively
small.
WHOOPING COUGH
The 23 cases of whooping cough notified during 1972 shows a big drop on the 135 cases
reported last year. This Department continues to co-operate with the Public Health Laboratory
Service in carrying out the survey into the efficacy of the whooping cough vaccines at present in
use. During the year 35 per-nasal swabs were taken from contacts of notified cases of whooping
cough and in four of these cases Bordetella pertussis (the organism which causes whooping cough)
was isolated.
CHOLERA SURVEILLANCE
A total of 203 persons arriving in Hillingdon from areas in which cholera was at that time
present were placed under surveillance during the year 1971. The fact that only 6 people had to be
similarly surveyed during 1972 is a reflection of the decreased incidence of cholera throughout the
world during the year.

Health Control Unit, London (Heathrow) Airport
Dr. P. R. Cooper—Principal Medical Officer (Port Health)
Probably the year under review will be remembered by the Health Control Unit more on account
of the expulsion from Uganda of some 30,000 residents who held British passports than for any
other event.
The whole operation was expected to be completed in two months and it was thought that if
all the immigrants had to be medically screened on arrival, the staff both medical and clerical, would
be subjected to considerable pressure.
As events turned out, charter flights brought the Asians to Stansted and Gatwick Airports,
leaving Heathrow to accept for the most part, only the scheduled services. Nevertheless, some 15,000
Asians arrived at Heathrow during the operation and quite a few of these were brought into Terminals
1 and 2 on special flights laid on by such airlines as Air France, Luxair, Lufthansa and Alitalia. The
arrivals in Terminal 3 came on East African Airlines and B.O.A.C.
September and October are normally the busiest months for the Unit as so many overseas
students arrive for the start of the academic year. This fact was known to the Department of Health
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