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Clothing and Footgear. The standard of clothing and
footgear of the children on the whole continued to be satisfactory.
Boots and shoes, together with garments suitable
for school children, which were 110 longer considered
serviceable at the Infectious Diseases Hospital were again
passed over to the Attendance Department after thorough
disinfection had been carried out. These were then distributed
to the most needy families. Assistance of this nature
was also granted by the local branch of the Invalid Children's
Aid Association.
(c) Minor Ailments and Diseases of the Skin. The minor
ailments found at the routine and special inspections are
indicated in Table II.
Ringworm of the body, scabies, impetigo, other skin
diseases, minor injuries, diseases of the ears and eyes (including
otorrhœa and blepharitis) together with miscellaneous
conditions such as sores and chilblains were the common
ailments detected.
Of the children examined as routine cases in the schools,
0.39% were found to be suffering from skin diseases. One
was suffering from scabies, three were suffering from impetigo
and three from other minor skin ailments.
Three hundred and sixty, or 11.29% of the special cases
examined at the Health Centre were discovered to be suffering
from diseases of the skin. There were fifteen cases of ringworm
of the body, thirty cases of scabies, one hundred and
fourteen of impetigo, and two hundred and one of other skin
conditions.
Ringworm of the scalp is not of frequent occurrence
amongst school children in Wimbledon.
(d) Visual Defects and External Eye Disease. There
were twelve cases of external eye disease amongst the 1,764
routine children examined. This gives a figure of 0.68%.
All these cases were due to blepharitis.
At the special inspections there were seventy cases or
2.19% due to external eye disease. Forty-four were due to
blepharitis, twenty-five to conjunctivitis, and one to interstitial
keratitis.
Serious conditions such as keratitis and corneal opacities
are fortunately not common amongst the school children in
Wimbledon.
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