Annual report of the Public Health Department of the City of Port-of-Spain.

  • Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago). Public Health Department.
Date:
[1944]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Annual report of the Public Health Department of the City of Port-of-Spain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/44 (page 5)
    Year, 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 Larval Index. Premises with mosquito larVa£ per cent, of number visited. 2.58 1.70 1.45 1.83 2.94 3.27 5.4 (A) Premises and Occupations Controlled by Bye-Laws and Regulations. Food. The food situation through much improved to what it was a year ago when I wrote my last report cannot yet be said to be satisfactory. Shortage of essential foodstuffs still occurs and though we are now without the long queues of prospective buyers waiting for rice, flour, and milk there still is at times a scarcity of rice, of butter and eggs, of cheese, of bacon and ham and even again recently of meat and fish. Fruit and green vegetables are on the increase and vegetables generally are plentiful. As regards the cleanliness of food generally and the sanitary condition under which food is prepared and sold to the general public, there is much leeway to be made up. The work of educating food vendors of registering foodshops, &c., of examining medically food handlers and of registering itinerant vendors continues, but the progress made during the year under report was comparatively small due to the difficulty in obtaining material for the proper screening of trays and carts and even, at times, the wood, galvanized iron, &c., &c., for the making of suitable trays and carts. Again great difficulty was experienced in procuring the necessary badges for itinerant vendors, none could be obtained from the United Kingdom and a makeshift had to be adopted whereby some of the badges left over from previous years had to be recommissioned into service. Many vendors failed to come in and with the shortage of Sanitary Inspectors the hunting down process had, perforce, to be curtailed. In time of great hardship and with the difficulties inevitable to war, it is not such an easy thing to insist upon and obtain at all times the clean clothes, the protected trays, uniforms, aprons, &c., which play such an important part in securing and maintaining food that is exposed for sale free from contamination by dirt, dust, flies, &c. As I write conditions are improving and the situation has quite definitely taken a turn for the better. Sale of Milk Bye-Laws. Dairies and Milk Shops. Sub-District. Cowshed Licences Issued. City proper .. .. .. .. .. .. 1 East Dry River (unsewered).. .. .. .. .. — Belmont (unsewered) .. .. .. .. .. — Woodbrook (partly unsewered) .. .. .. .. 2 St. James . .. 11 Total 1944 . . • « • • * • 14 Total 1943 . • t • * * « 18 Dairymen’s Licences. Dairyman’s Licences issued to cowkeepers and other purveyors 14 of milk « . , . . • . .. Dairyman’s Licences issued to shops, milk bars and refreshment 54 parlours . .. Total 1944 • * » i • ♦ • * 68 Total 1943 . • • • • • • 80 Milk Vendors’ Licences and Badges. City and Milk Vendors’ Cows Tuberculin Badges. Out-Districts. Licences. T ested. Port-of-Spain 68 81 20 Out-Districts 47 51 53 Total 1944 115 132 73 Total 1943 116 210 64 >