Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Surbiton]
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The number of persons who were vaccinated or re-vaccinated during I960 was:-
Age Groups | Under 1 | 1 | 2-4 | 5-14 | 15 or over. | TOTAL |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Vaccinations | 567 | 66 | 19 | 20 | 70 | 742 |
Re-vaccinations | - | - | 7 | 24 | 308 | 339 |
Calculations show that by the end of 1960 some 61.567% of
children born between 1st July, 1959 and 30th June, 1960, have been
vaccinated against smallpox.
SONNE DYSENTERY.
The number of cases reported during the year was 2 against
123 for the previous year.
The following table shows the number of cases occurring since first recognition of this disease in Surbiton in 1950:-
1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
140 | 62 | - | 10 | 12 | 25 | 289 | 202 | 28 | 123 | 2 |
Personal hygiene is of the utmost importance in prevention of
spread, especially the washing of hands after use of water-closets
and before eating.
W.C.s should be kept scrupulously clean, seats, chain-pulls
and door handles in particular being frequently washed with
disinfectant.
Schools are naturally associated with the dissemination of
the illness, but without doubt it also spreads rapidly through
households once introduced. It is therefore regarded as a "family"
illness necessitating checking of all contacts. This is readily
done in the laboratory by examination of faeces, but the task of
controlling an outbreak is a major operation calling for close
co-operation between laboratory, medical practitioners, teachers,
parents and Public Health Department staff.
The greatest chance of success comes when no time is lost in
recognising the condition and notifying it to the Public Health
Department so that preventive action can be initiated without delay.
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