§ 42. Mr. Abseasked the Minister of Health what are the percentage variations in notifications of dysentery in 1959 compared with 1950 in England and Wales, respectively; what preventative steps he is taking to control the annual winter out-breaks in Wales; and whether he will initiate discussions with the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs and with the Minister of Education with a view to improving the sanitation in houses and schools in the severely affected Welsh areas.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health (Miss Edith Pitt)An increase of 98 per cent. in England and 253 per cent. in Wales. So far as is known, the most effective prevention lies in better personal hygiene, which, with my Department's assistance, local authorities are constantly emphasising in their health education.
§ Mr. AbseDoes not the hon. Lady agree that personal hygiene would be much simpler if it were not for the fact, as shown in the last census, that we have 300,000 houses in Wales which have no bathrooms, and 125,000 which have no flush lavatories? Is it not rather simple for her, confronted with these annual waves of dysentery—which we should expect to find in an Asiatic country and not in Wales—to lecture on personal hygiene when what is needed instead is a drive to get these houses put right?
Is she aware that will not be done by raising, by 4 per cent., the amount a landlord can get if he puts civilised sanitation into his houses?
§ Miss PittSanitary provision both in homes and schools has very considerably improved in the last decade, and I would not think that the answer to this problem lies there. This is a matter of personal hygiene, because, in the main, this disease is passed on by personal contact. 1192 The hon. Member referred to the position in the Principality, but he took a particularly bad year in choosing 1959. The figures for preceding years, which I have carefully studied show a far better position in comparison with England.
§ Mr. K. RobinsonDoes not the hon. Lady agree that these are very disturbing figures? Can she say whether they represent a general upward trend for England and Wales or whether 1959 was a particularly bad year in both?
§ Miss PittThe year 1959 was a bad one for Wales, but such upward trend as there is comes about through improved diagnostic facilities, the fact that the disease is more easily recognised, and the fact that more significance is attached to diarrhoea amongst young children.