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8
The condition of bombed sites in the district was a source
of anxiety both as regards nuisances caused by the deposit of
domestic and other refuse thereon and in respect of rat infestation,
and offensive refuse was cleared from the sites when conditions made
it obvious that removal was an urgent matter, but during the time
that the normal collection of house refuse within the Borough was
held up it was not possible to cope with the demands.
During the year household and other offensive refuse was
removed by the Public Health Department from 54 sites in the
Borough on 81 occasions, after repeated and well-founded complaints
from householders that serious nuisance was arising.
As if the difficulties experienced by the Public Health
Department were not sufficient in themselves, floodings of the
Borough in the neighbourhood of the River Lea occurred on the 14th
March, and the list of the premises and the action taken are given
on page 38 of this report.
The flooding of the Metropolitan Water Board's purification
plant in the Lea Bridge Road district made it necessary for advice
to be given about boiling water before use, and, following the
subsidence of the floods, for the purification of cisterns and water
fittings to be carried out by the Public Health Department.
The additional work thrown by these happenings upon the
Department, which at that time was considerably under strength,
was again increased when in May began the outbreak of poliomyelitis
which caused so much anxiety until it ceased in October. Some
notes will be found on page 49 with regard to the steps taken arising
from the poliomyelitis.
A matter of unusual interest was the notification of a case
of typhus, the first such notification certainly for 25 years in Hackney.
Typhus, since the outbreak of war, in view of the Continental
outbreaks which have occurred from time to time and the favourable
conditions for such outbreaks caused by war, made it generally
necessary to make special arrangements for dealing with any such
outbreak should it occur over here.
One of the cyanide chambers has been used for the disinfestation
of ambulances which have carried typhus patients or suspected
cases to the London County Council fever hospital selected for this
purpose, and since this arrangement was made, 13 typhus ambulances
have been treated.