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95
50 other letters were written about children to the School Authorities
or the Invalid Children's Aid Association. 23 children seen at the
Dispensary but showing no definite signs of Tuberculosis, were referred
to this Association which sent 14 for convalescent treatment, referring
9 to the Guardians.
174 Patients were recommended to the London County Council for
Institutional treatment. 5 of these had had such treatment previously.
In 13 cases the London County Council were unable to accept, and in
6 the patients refused to go when offered a vacancy.
One of the principal functions of a Tuberculosis Dispensary is the
examination of persons living in contact with notified cases of Tuberculosis
with a view to discovering someone as a cause of the infection,
or to discover, early, others already infected by the notified case. The
number of such contacts examined is generally taken as an index of
the effectiveness of the 'Health Visiting.' As seen in Table I, 146
'contacts' were examined at the Dispensary during the year. This
number may seem rather small, but the definition of a contact is not quite
simple, and has been restricted in this return to the number of persons
who attended the Dispensary for examination during the year as a
result of the advice of the Health Visitors to do so when a case of
Tuberculosis was notified in that home. Persons referred by doctors
with suspicious symptoms or signs, or persons presenting themselves
because they felt ill were not counted as contacts even though they
had been living with a definitely tuberculous patient. On the definition
of a contact now given by the Ministry (vide Notes to Table I), such
persons would be included. 57 such would be added to the figure 146.
Taking the Notifications of Tuberculosis received in two of our
most crowded wards—Vale and St. Paul's—the old East ward—57 were
received during the year. Of these 5 were subsequently found to have
been previously notified, and in 7 the diagnosis was not confirmed;
one was a case transferred from another area, leaving 44 Primary
Notifications—33 Pulmonary Tuberculosis and 11 Non-Pulmonary
Tuberculosis. Of these, the number examined at Dispensary, the total
contacts, and the number of the latter examined at Dispensary are
shown in the table.
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