[Report 1968] / Medical Officer of Health, Crawley U.D.C.
- Crawley (England). Urban District Council.
- Date:
- 1968
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1968] / Medical Officer of Health, Crawley U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![public interest aroused in the prevention of avoidable disease, the situation should be viewed in proper perspective. Cancer of the cervix is not a common disease and is decreasing steadily each year. Cancer of the bronchus is only too common and increases inexorably. And yet one sees ladies who, themselves keen supporters of the cer- vical smear campaign, are regular smokers of cigarettes] If a re- liable system of self-palpation of the breast could be devised, and if people would cease the smoking of cigarettes, infinitely more lives could be saved than could ever be hoped for from the most elaborate system of cervical smears. And who can doubt that there would also be a fall in the mortality from Ischaemic Heart Disease, which last year accounted for a total of 8l deaths in Crawley - 50 male and 31 female: 33 of these being from among the working popu- lation? Notifiable Disease As this was not a Measles Year only 40 cases were notified. However the usual biennial rise would have been expected to commence in the early winter and the fact that this has not been so can only be attributed to the vaccination of susceptibles, which first started in England and Wales in June 1968. It had been estimated that there were approximately 3*800,000 under 15's who had not suffered from the disease; although the total so far protected does not approach this figure, there can be no doubt that the campaign has made its impact felt, by the very considerable reduction so far achieved. As in epidemic years the total number notified may exceed three-quarters of a million, with about a quarter of a million in the between years, the benefit to a hard-pressed Health Service of the eradication of Measles would be immense. No cases of Dysentery were notified, although the prevalence of Sonne dysentery has been high over the country generally during the last two years. On the 13th June all Medical Officers of Health received a cir- cular from the C.M.O. to the Ministry, dated the 5th June, stating that Infective Jaundice would be generally notifiable from the 15th June - (The Public Health (Infective Jaundice) Regulations, 1968). We were requested to send copies of these Regulations to all general practitioners. Although these were ordered on the same day, it was not until the 24th June that they were received from the Stationery Office. For many years the public health service has been urging that Infective Jaundice should be included in the list of diseases officially notifiable. There is no doubt that in many countries the incidence is rising, and epidemics lasting several years have occurred in the U.S.A., the United Kingdom, and in Australia. It is an enteric infection, associated with viraemia, which carries a definite, if small, mortality, particularly in the aged. In the case of children, infection may not be accompanied by definite jaundice](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29126782_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
