[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kingston-upon-Thames].

  • Kingston upon Thames (London, England). Council.
Date:
[1971?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kingston-upon-Thames]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/174 (page 2)
    2 On the other hand, smoking by doctors has declined since 1951 and in 1965 only one-third smoked cigarettes compared with two-thirds in other men. I am sure this second report will cause many more people to renew previous efforts to give up smoking. Of 5,724 persons who attended the Mass Miniature Radiography Service in the borough during the year, 11 cases of cancer of the lung were discovered, but only 4 cases of tuberculosis. , Communicable Diseases The number of notifiable infectious diseases remained low. There was an increase in the notifications of infective jaundice 37 against 14 in 1969. This illness was only made notifiable in June 1968 and it is possible that not all cases are being notified. Measles also showed an increase in 1970, a non-epidemic year. 458 cases were notified compared with 283 cases in 1969, which should have been an epidemic year. I believe that an effort should now be made to immunise all children against measles once the triple antigen injections and poliomyelitis immunisations have been oompleted. Although a proportion (possibly up to about one-third) show a temperature or a mild measles illness it could lead to the abolition of measles in this country. Regrettably, in line with national trends, venereal diseases and associated conditions showed an increase of 62 per cent. The number of cases of gonorrhoea was almost double that of 1969 - Vaccination and Immunisation The percentage of children resident in the borough who received full protection against various infectious diseases continued at a high level, but constant effort is necessary to maintain this state. Immunisation against rubella (German measles) became available towards the end of the year and 478 girls in their 13th year received protection.