[Report 1958] / Medical Officer of Health, Liskeard R.D.C.

  • Liskeard (England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1958
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1958] / Medical Officer of Health, Liskeard R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Area since 1952 when 234 cases were notified. The most prevalent diseases were measles with 113 cases and whooping cough with 7!. cases. Of individual districts Looe Urban District with 86 cases had the highest prevalence of notifiable disease due to small outbreaks of measles, and whooping cough.' The lightest incidence of notifiable disease was in Torpoint Urban District witjji only six cases, and Liskeard Municipal Borough wiih 8 cases was almost as fortunate. Of more serious types of communicable disease there were four cases of poliomyelitis one of which in an adult was unfortunately fatal. The deceased being an adult was too old to have participated in the poliomyelitis immunisation scheme. Of the other three cases one child who suffered a moderate amount of paralysis had not been immunised. The other two cases, one of whom had been immunised were mild non-paralytic forms of the disease. One mild case of diptheria in an adult too old to have been included in the diptheria immunisation campaign when it comm¬ enced in 1940 was notified in Torpoint Urban District. There was some increase in the number of new cases of tuberculosis notified during 1958. There were 27 cases in all an increase of 6 over the 1957 total. Of these 23 were respiratory infections and four were non-respiratory infections. There were six deaths attributed to tuberculosis during the year. Whereas mortality from tuberculosis has fallen very sharply over the past ten years, and there has been some reduction in the number of new infections, the latter improve¬ ment has not been nearly so spectacular as one could have hoped or wished for. Indeed during the last 12-18 months there has been some increase in this Area in new cases discovered, and notified. In the first decade following the end of the last war it did appear that the prospects of eradicating tuberculosis were quite bright. Experience has however shown that some of our hopes and conclusions were perhaps wishful thinking, and the reduction in the amount of infection in the community, and the establishment of proper control over it will be a much slower process than was believed some years ago. I do not wish to appear a pessimist and give the impression that no further improvement is possible. I am confident that given the co-operation and understanding of the public it will be possible to reduce the incidence of tuberculosis to negligible proportions but we must not expect to reach this happy state of affairs without some delay, and without some reverses, and setbacks to our hopes from time to time. Just over 100 years ago when what we now know as the Public Health Service had its beginnings the emphasis was on improving the appalling physical conditions in which a great many lived, since these were clearly linked with and responsible for widespread suffering, and disease, high mortality, and greatly re¬ duced expectation of life. Although the pioneers and early workers in this field encountered many obstacles and had to fight against opposition from vested interests and apathy from those they were trying to help, the evils against which they fought were clearly defined physical entities such as unhealthy and over¬ crowded housing conditions, inadequate and grossly polluted water supplies and an almost total lack of sanitation. Most of these defects in mans' physical environment have now been eliminated, and with the greatly reduced incidence of infectious disease, and a considerable improvement in living standard those factors menacing the physical well-being of the community have been largely removed. This decline in morbidity and mortality from communicable disease has tended to throw into sharper relief the other ills to which human flesh is heir. Not the least of these is disturbance or frank disorder of mental health the treatment of which has become a major preoccupation of the medical profession, and social workers throughout the country. The causes of mental ill-health are so numerous, and vary so much from one individual to another, that it is difficult, if not im¬ possible to find any large scale or mass solution of them, and methods which served well in the past to deal with slum clearance, water supply, sanitation, immunisation and other public health procedures have a very limited application in the prevention of mental disability and disease, where the solution of problems must be on a much more individual basis. Even if sufficient and suitably trained