View report page

12
equipment provided (the actinotherapy clinic is a special feature
of this centre), must result in great benefit to the health of the
mothers and children living in this well-populated part of the
Borough.
The year's record as regards the common infectious disease
was very good. The number of cases of diphtheria (169) was the
smallest since 1910 when 157 cases occurred, and there were only
5 deaths during 1938 from this disease, a lower figure than has
ever before been recorded in the Borough. The policy of offering
facilities for protecting children against diphtheria has been actively
pursued, and these efforts have continued to meet with the approval
of parents, as can be seen from the figures given in this report;
but it must not be inferred that the immunisations have yet had
the effect of controlling the disease to any extent since the proportion
of immunised children is still so small; the obvious protection
given by immunisation is, however, shown by the mildness of
the few cases that occurred among them and the fact that no deaths
occurred among them. No immunized child has yet died from the
disease in Hackney, and immunization was first introduced to
the borough in 1928. It is necessary to go back 20 years before a
smaller annual total of cases of scarlet fever can be found to compare
with the past year's total of 340 cases. There was only one death
from scarlet fever. The measles epidemic of 1938 was very little
less widespread than in the two previous epidemics despite the
continued efforts of the Borough Council and the School Medical
Service to limit the spread of infection. The use of adult measles
serum by general practitioners is described, and it is hoped that
more general use of serum will reduce the number of cases in future
epidemics. There were only 6 deaths, as compared with 45 and 27
in the two previous epidemics, which indicates that the publicity
given to the dangerous character of this disease and the need for
careful nursing from the onset of illness is bearing good result.
Further progress in housing matters is reported, as, for instance,
in the re-housing of families from clearance areas and from overcrowded
dwellings. The year 1939 should see the completion of
re-housing of outstanding clearance area inhabitants and considerable
progress as regards the abatement of overcrowding.
The disinfestation of houses and furniture has now become an
everyday job of considerable dimensions, and to enable the Public
Health Department to cope with the large quantities of furniture
requiring disinfestation a third gas chamber has been erected at
the Disinfecting Station. This chamber has a circulatory system