[Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, Aberdeen City.

  • Aberdeen (Scotland). City Council.
Date:
1952
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, Aberdeen City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE. VACCINATION AND IMMUNISATION teeth (from 1-1 per cent, in 1949-50 to 2 per cent, in 1950-51, and 2-6 per cent, now), and an unexplained increase in the prevalence of diseases of the lung (from 3 per cent, in 1949-50 to 3-9 per cent, in 1950-51, and 4-4 per cent. now). The percentage of children notified to parents as suffering from defects is also showing a gradual tendency to rise: 11-2 per cent, in 1949-50, 11-3 in 1950-51, and 11-7 in 1951-52. It is pleasant to record that the Corporation has decided to appoint an audiometrician to carry out tests of hearing, although (since the report on the School Health Service covers not the calendar year hut the school year 1951-52) the decision is strictly a matter for inclusion in next year’s report. According to the Department of Health for Scotland, “At least 30 per cent, of patients who seek medical advice are suffering from disorders in which mental and emotional factors are of primary importance.’’ The role of the mental health service in the prevention and even early diagnosis of mental, nervous, and psychosomatic diseases can therefore be one of great significance. Yet, in Aberdeen as in most places, the development of that service is essentially a matter for the future. At least it can be said that at the end of the year the problem of how best to expand the mental health service was being considered by the Health and Welfare Committee. Aberdeen is in an unusual position in respect of vaccination and immunisa- tion. In many towns and counties the vaccination figures are alarmingly low while those for immunisation against diphtheria are reasonably good, but here the situation is to some extent reversed. The statistics for vaccination against smallpox are about as satisfactory as one can expect: broadly, about seven children are vaccinated for every ten born. Credit is due to health visitors (who are unwearied in their efforts to remind every mother that smallpox can invade this country at any time), general practitioners (who perform fully three-fifths of the vaccinations), and medical officers at the clinics (who perform the remaining two-fifths). Figures for immunisation against diphtheria are much less good: at the end of 1952 only 51 per cent, of pre-school children were recorded as having been immunised. Approximately one-third of children are immunised by general practitioners, another third are immunised at child welfare clinics, and the remaining third remain unimmunised until they enter school, most of them being then immunised by the school doctors. It must be emphasised that, while the giving of reinforcing injections after school entry is of the highest importance, it should be a rarity for a child to receive a primary course of immunisation as late as the age of five years. A child left unprotected till that age has been subjected for years to a serious and unjustifiable risk. Every effort will be made to improve the immunisation figures during 1953. Figures for whooping cough inoculation are less good than for vaccination and approximate to those for immunisation against diphtheria.