Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health / Nairobi Municipality.

  • Nairobi (Kenya). Public Health Department.
Date:
[1955]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health / Nairobi Municipality. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/140 (page 8)
    spread of infection in the city. While obviously one does not wish to take too parochial a view, it must be admitted that urbanisation, especially on the scale at which it is occurring in Nairobi, is a very potent factor in the spread of the disease, and the extent of the problem is probably much greater proportionately here than it would be in small urban communities in a more or less rural setting. Although it has been stated that the impact of the emergency on the general development of the city was less than might have been expected, its effect upon our own capital works programme was disastrous, and certain projects — the establishment of two new African maternity and child welfare centres, the building of an ante¬ natal clinic for the African Maternity Hospital and the four dis¬ pensary units, made little progress. By the end of the year no actual work had started. This was particularly unfortunate in regard to the dispensary services, because naturally no improvements could be made to the existing service, whereas the demand for attention grows steadily each year. There are, however, some grounds for hoping that this major reorganisation will be possible during the forth¬ coming year. Almost as important is its sequel, that is, the taking over by the City Council of the complete reorganisation of the city’s ambulance service. The improvement which should be effected by bringing the service, which is now fragmented to a most unwieldy degree, under one central control should not only produce a vast improvement in efficiency but also make its whole operation very much more economic. Health education has always been regarded as an important function of the health department in this city, rather more impor¬ tant perhaps than in many others, owing to the mixed racial pattern and the casual ideas about hygiene still held by a large bulk of the population. Two notable events occurred in this connection. The first was a health exhibition in April at the Asian Teachers Training College, designed to indoctrinate the school population through their teachers. The usual propaganda methods were used including films, visual exhibits and lectures, and it seems obvious that we must make this an annual event. The second was an exhibition held in November under the title “Help yourself to Health”. This ran for five days and was attended by over 6,000 people- It is pleasing to note that it was financially self- supporting, and it is planned that an exhibition of this kind should also become an annual event. I should like to pay a special tribute to the Deputy Medical Officer of Health, Dr. McAllan and the Food Inspector, Mr. Beechey, and to all staff of the department to whose most strenuous efforts the success of the latter exhibition was due. Another move forward in our health propaganda arrangements was the obtaining of authority to purchase a quantity of films and film strips on health subjects. These are to be developed into a full reference library, from which material for exhibitions and similar demonstrations can be drawn.