[Report 1943] / School Medical Officer of Health, Exeter.

  • Exeter (England). City Council.
Date:
1943
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1943] / School Medical Officer of Health, Exeter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    31/44 (page 31)
    BACTERIOLOGICAL EXAMINATIONS. During the year 466 specimens of sputum and I specimen of I urine were examined at the Dispensary. Other examinations 1 are carried out in the Pathological Department of the Royal '( Devon and Exeter Hospital. X-RAY EXAMINATIONS. » During the year 562 X-ray examinations were made (HI for 3 screen only). Of this total, 105 examinations were made on )( behalf of the Ministry of Labour and National Service. VENEREAL DISEASE. With the approval of the Ministry of Health, arrangements a have been made between the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, I the Devon County Council and the City Council of Exeter, for the r treatment of these diseases at a special department of the 3 Hospital. The hours of attendance are as follows :— Men Mondays, 3—5 p.m., and Fridays, 6—-8 p.m. Women Fridays, 3—5 p.m. If in-patient treatment is necessary, special beds are available j in the Hospital. In spite of all sorts of stories about the amount of venereal ] 'disease locally, it is satisfactory to be able to record that there 1 has been a sharp fall in the number of new cases of both syphilis 5 and gonorrhoea during 1943. That this is not due to failure to 5 attend the Clinic is shewn by the number of persons who, pre- J sumably having been exposed to risk, attended for examination ! and were found to be suffering from non-venereal conditions. : Probably a good many cases of gonorrhoea are treated privately : with the effective drugs now available. This makes it difficult j to form an accurate estimate of the prevalence of this disease. Most cases of syphilis find their way to the Clinic, so that the decrease in new cases of this disease is unquestionable. Another satisfactory feature is the number of patients who completed treatment, and the reduced number who defaulted. A medical officer in charge of an Allied unit was asked ’ recently if he considered Exeter a bad place for V.D. infection. His reply was a definite ‘‘No,” and he added that most of the men reporting sick with V.D. and coming under his charge, had contracted the disease while on leave in London. The problem of V.D. is always serious, but it is certain that it is not an especially serious problem in this City.