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is intended to indicate the general lines upon which the earlier investigations
might proceed.
It is stated that the first step should be to devise means for establishing contact
with patients, and at the outset probably the field will be limited to patients seeking
treatment in hospitals. In London the London County Council will be the
Authority to undertake the work suggested, but it would seem that there is every
likelihood that the officers of local authorities will be invited to act as liaison officers
in the duties of visiting and tendering advice to patients upon such subjects as
regularity of attendance at hospital, nursing arrangements in the home, and the
use of drugs and dressings, etc. Reference is made in the Circular of the need for
improved education of the public in the subject of cancer. In this regard your
Committee will remember that last November I submitted a report for your
consideration, wherein I suggested as a means of extending the present activities
for disseminating knowledge of this disease, the desirability of inviting the cooperation
of employers in the Borough in the distribution of a leaflet containing
information on the disease and the organs of the body commonly affected. Your
Committee accordingly authorised me to proceed on the lines indicated, and it is
gratifying to record that the majority of employers readily offered their assistance,
with the result that over 10,000 leaflets were distributed to adult female workers
employed at the various factories and workshops in Camberwell.
In view of the publication of this further Circular and the recently issued
Ministry of Health Report on Cancer of the Lip, Tongue and Skin, by Dr. Janet
E. Lane Claypon, I have again sought the co-operation of employers requesting
the distribution of a leaflet, applicable to male workers, providing information
relating to this disease in sites of the body referred in the above report. The
distribution is now proceeding, and up to the date of preparation of this report
approximately 15,000 leaflets have been circulated.
Your obedient Servant,
H. W. BARNES,
Medical Officer of Health.
The Council approved the action of the Medical Officer of
Health with regard to the distribution of leaflets and other
activities.
Chicken Pox. Compulsory Notification.
In view of the emergency arising from the then prevailing
epidemic of smallpox, the Council in January, 1930, decided that
the provisions of Section 55 of the Public Health (London) Act,
1891, which section relates to the notification of infectious diseases,
should apply in the Borough of Camberwell to the infectious
disease known as chicken-pox, and that the Order should remain
in operation for a period of six months.
In connection with the matter, the Council had before them
the following report of the Medical Officer of Health :—
Public Health Department,
.35, Brunswick Square,
Camberwell, S.E.5.
June 17th, 1930.
To the Chairman and Members of the Public Health Committee.
Ladies and Gentlemen,—The Council at their meeting on January 8th last
made an Order applying the provisions of Section 55 of the Public Health (London)
Act, 1891, to the infectious disease known as chicken-pox, for a period of six
months.