Report of the Medical Officer of Health on the public health and sanitary circumstances of the city and borough of Pietermaritzburg.

  • Pietermaritzburg (South Africa). Public Health Department.
Date:
[1935]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Medical Officer of Health on the public health and sanitary circumstances of the city and borough of Pietermaritzburg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/154 (page 2)
    CTI01T A -2- 1934-1935 INTRODUCTORY Coni'do newly-appointed Native Health Assistants0 These men had previously been trained in the first course of instruction of its kind to he provided by any Municipality in the Union . The appointment, as full-time Assistant Medical Officer of Health, of a medical practitioner with wide clinical experience in infectious disease work, greatly increased the continuity and value of the services now offered by this Department to the public. The slum problem received urgent consideration. There was a rising’ public appreciation of the truth that this is the most serious public health problem, at the root of most of our anxieties in connection with the spread of infectious disease. In this report will be found a statement of Pietermaritzburg's position with regard to insanitary housingo Pietermaritzburg is fortunate that the immediate question of slum clearance and re-housing is not so great that it cannot be tackled with speed and success if the matter is taken properly in hand. Money spent on good housing, like all money spent on soundly planned healtli control work, provides a magnificent civic insurance for the payment of a very small premium.