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52
Penicillin Tablets.
A supply of penicillin tablets is now kept at the health centres
at Park Lane and Lordship Lane for the treatment of septic mouths
and throats, and preliminary reports indicate that they are very
effective for these conditions.
D.D.T.
D.D.T. is now being used in the form of an emulsion (2.5 per
cent) for the treatment of head lice in school children. An experiment
was performed towards the end of the year on 48 children
infested with nits and lice. The 13 children who had live lice were
completely clean at the end of a month, but 25 children still had nits
at the end of this period. The evidence that can be drawn from this
restricted experiment is that whilst D.D.T. is effective against live
lice, it probably has no effect on nits. It would seem, however, that
D.D.T. has advantages over other insecticides in its prolonged action
for whilst some of the 13 still had nits at the end of the month, none
had live lice, suggesting that it is not only necessary to use D.D.T.
on the infested heads, but it is also essential to clean these heads of
nits by usual methods, i.e., thorough combing.
D.D.T. has the advantage of killing live lice so effectively over
a prolonged period that it is a useful weapon in preventing the spread
of infestation.
Scabies.
Attention was drawn in my Report last year to the significant
fact that in-spite of the war, the number of cases of scabies had
continued to fall. This decline has been maintained, and the
impression previously gained that an awakening of the public
conscience in this matter, and the benefit of modern methods of
treatment, are having effective results. The disease too has been
made compulsorily notifiable in this area.
A most encouraging sign is the rapidity with which cases now
respond to treatment, which must have its effect in the general
control of this disease. It is our practice when a case of scabies is
discovered to treat the whole of the family as a unit, and so
immediately effect an arrest of the spread of infection. The success
of this arrangement depends upon the co-operation of the general
medical practitioners in dealing with the adult members of the