Report of the Commission of Public Health to the Minister of Public Health / Department of Public Health, Victoria.

  • Victoria. Commission of Public Health
Date:
[1976]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Commission of Public Health to the Minister of Public Health / Department of Public Health, Victoria. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    21/48 (page 21)
    Despite a series of applications to granting bodies, adequate funds for the phage-typing of strains of Salmonella typhimurium have not been made available. Typing was much curtailed during Miss Taplin’s prolonged sick leave and has always been dependent upon borrowing staff, temporarily, from other duties in the Department of Microbiology. This dependence on help from outside the unit was particularly evident in 1975 when the load of work was, at times, too great for the desired standards of thoroughness and promptitude to be achieved. Experimental work to determine bacterial multiplication in artificial cream, for example, would scarcely have been possible without the temporary secondment of a Scientific Officer from the Health Laboratory. Through all this our relations with the officers of the Health Department remain at the usual excellent level. MICROBIOLOGICAL DIAGNOSTIC UNIT. Annual Examinations. A Comparison of Numbers for the Calendar Years 1974 and 1975. Examinations. 1974. 1975. 1. Upper Respiratory Tract Infections :— (a) Diphtheria (i) Cultural examinations 1,752 879 (ii) Isolations and identifications 4 4 (b) Haemolytic Streptococci (i) Cultural examinations 1,752 879 (ii) Groupings 136 109 (iii) Anti-streptolysin titre tests 129 130 2. Enteric Infections (Salmonella and Shigella) :— (i) Cultural examinations 1,995 1,817 (ii) Identifications 1,093 1,466 (iii) Bacteriophage typing (S. typhi 175, S. paratyphi B 35, S. typhimurium 1131) .. 3,428 1,341 (iv) Widal agglutinations 710 831 3. Serological Investigations :— (i) Brucella 515 823 (ii) Glandular Fever 116 160 (iii) Leptospirosis 242 121 (iv) Typhus Fever 36 42 (v) Rubella H.I. 1,272 1,506 4. General Bacteriological Examinations :— (i) Cultures 3,137 4,608 (ii) Drug sensitivites 1,121 1,422 5. N. gonorrhoeae and related infections :— (a) N. gonorrhoeae (i) Smears 1,417 2,605 (ii) Cultural examinations 10,574 15,291 (b) Trichomonas vaginalis (i) Culture 69 6. Medical Mycology :— 102 197 7. Water Examinations :— 704 659 8. Parasitological Examinations :— 126 946 Totals .. 30,361 35,905 Health Laboratory. General. The number of samples examined for the year exceeded 3,700, the largest ever handled in the division. There has, however, been no further staff appointed and the additional load has had to be borne by existing personnel. It is to the great credit of all staff members that such a large volume of work has been completed. New equipment obtained during the year included a total organic carbon analyser. This instrument is used particularly for sewage analysis, and determination of organic carbon is becoming an adjunct to the traditional but rather empirical B.O.D. estimation. A carbon rod] attachment which has been acquired for the atomic absorption spectrophotometer will significantly increase sensitivity in analysis of trace metals. Staff chemists have been called to appear in court on a number of prosecution cases and have also been engaged in sampling of a number of trade effluents on behalf of the Health Commission prior to approval of E.P.A. licences being given by the Commission. Approximately 1,000 technical inquiries from outside the public service have been handled by senior officers.