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80
The Health Visiting Staff is barely able to carry out the duties
as regards notification of births and Centre work, and any additional
duties would mean the relinquishing of work now being
performed.
The principal diseases to be considered under this heading
are Measles and Whooping Cough.
These, and some other infectious diseases principally affecting
the infant population are compulsorily notifiable in some
London Boroughs as, for instance, Greenwich.
In Hackney no attempt can be made under present circumstances
to do more than attend to cases brought urgently to
the notice of the Public Health Department.
There can be no systematic attempt to cope with the school
notifications.
As long ago as 1915 the Medical Officer of the Local Government
Board, in an official memorandum on the subject of Measles,
stated :—
"Notification of cases of Measles by itself has only a
statistical interest. Its practical value depends upon the
extent to which the information is utilised in securing the coordinated
adoption of all the measures available for preventing
the spread of infection and for diminishing the mortality
from the disease. Past lack of success in reducing; its
mortality through notification has, in part at least, been dm
to the failure to utilise all practicable measures in each case
Very commonly, for instance, the only action taken has
been to leave a leaflet of instructions and possibly to arrac;:
for disinfection after recovery or death."
This is exactly the procedure, as a general rule, in Hackney
The memorandum states that each case should be recognised as