[Report 1967] / Medical Officer of Health, Stamford Borough.

  • Stamford (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1967
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1967] / Medical Officer of Health, Stamford Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/56 (page 23)
    It is very gratifying that for the second year in succession there were no cases of Dysentery or Food Poisoning. This speaks well for the prevailing standards of good food hygiene in the shops, canteens and by no means least in the home. The recorded case of Paratyphoid infection occurred as an episode in a carrier who had acquired the original infection abroad. Twelve years have now passed since there was c. so of Poliomyelitis in the town. '.That a safe and simple answer there is to the prevention of this dread disease and yet the parents of 11.5 per cent have cither the audacity to refuse it or the unpardonable apathy in not seeking it for their children. The equivalent County figure is 71*4 per cent protected. Similarly it is twenty-two years since Diphtheria last raised its ugly head in the Borough. I make no apology for repeating again the vital necessity for all parents to have their children protected in their early months of life and again at School entry if this deliverance from a crippling disease is to be maintained. There is however, reason for gratitude that 93•5 per cent of our children are protected, as compared with the County average of per cent. Through the medium of this Annual Report, opportunity is taken to voice a plea for the revision of the list of statutorily notifiable disease and bringing it into line with reality. What relevance today has Erysipelas, Ophthalmia Neonatorum or for that matter, Scarlet Fever to warrant their inclusion, whereas Undulant Fever (Brucellosis) and Weil1s Disease are not, where quick notification might prevent further human involvement. Is not revision of the period of exclusion for patients with some of the commoner infectious illnesses also overdue - surely seven days after ordinary measles - provided there is no raised temperature is long enough, three days after the rash of German Measles and seven days after that of Chicken Pox. It would reduce the ten per cent of school children who are absent from school at ary one time, which is approximately the National figure. All Council employees who are liable to come into contact with rat contaminated water are given a card of precautions to avoid contracting Weil(s Disease. These are available at the Health Department to other employers who may have workers in similar situations. During the year 151 from Stamford were v. .coin;, ted against Smallpox and also thirteen from the surrounding villages. Of these 103 were vaccinated at the Barn Hill Clinic.