PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEMS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27094, 18 July 1953, Page 8

PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEMS

Laboratory Facilities

Discussed

OFFICER’S ADDRESS TO CONFERENCE

A unified public health bacteriological service whs needed, said the Medical Officer of Health in Christchurch (Dr. D. P. Kennedy) in an address on public health laboratory facilities which he delivered to the annual conference of the New Zealand Association cf Bacteriologists yesterday. Dr. Kennedy suggested that the type of service needed in New Zealand was not a copy of that in Britain but one developed on the basis of the resources and needs of New Zealand and available throughout the country.

This service should be able to supply technical facilities, to develop a code for the collection and interpretation of laboratory specimens, and to co-operate in field work. The latter he believed to be the biggest single requirement, he said. To summarise the position, Dr. Kennedy quoted the dedication of a book on the control of common fevers pt.'jlished in 1942: “Dedicated to the alliance between health office and laboratory, with the medical officer of health and the bacteriologist as equal partners in the campaign against infection.” In his talk Dr. Kennedy traced the historical development of his subject, outlining the British public health laboratory facilities before 1939 and the emergency public health laboratory service developed since then. He gave an account of reference laboratories and reference experts before he passed on to laboratory requirements in New Zealand.