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94
Treatment in School Health Clinics
The following table shows details of the cases treated at the clinics
during the year and comments will be found in the appropriate
sections throughout this report:—

Tuberculosis in Schools
The years since the inception of the National Health Service have
seen a dramatic change in the whole picture of tuberculosis in the
community. The mortality rate has fallen dramatically from approximately
50 deaths per 100,000 population to under 20 per 100,000
population per annum. The notification rate too has now begun to
fall after some lag. Most important of all there can be little doubt
that the infectivity of cases has declined, i.e., they are now less of a
danger to the community.
This decline in infectivity is reflected in the lowered rate of tuberculin
sensitivity in the child population. At one time a great many school
entrants were tuberculin positive and such a finding was of little value.
Now the numbers are so few that this finding provides a starting point
for the discovery of a source of infection in the child's environment.
Patch Testing
During the autumn term of 1955 it was decided to start routine patch
testing of school entrants, and 177 children in Hornsey were tested.
Of these only six were patch positive. The children and their families
were invited to the Chest Clinic for x-rays. The father of one of these
children was found to be a case of infectious tuberculosis and is now
in hospital regaining his health and no longer a source of danger to the
community. It is intended to patch test the remainder of the Hornsey
school entrants and the Tottenham children during the rest of the
school year.