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119
This year the Health Visitors have been supporting 160 families
who have 308 children under five years of age and who, for one
reason or another, fail to support themselves and their families
without some assistance, usually both financial and moral.
Surveys
Childhood Cancers—The survey undertaken by the Department
of Social Medicine at Oxford University continues to receive
assistance from Health Visitors and a Medical Officer who visits
parents after careful preparation. These parents are always very
willing to help in the Study and usually indicate that the opportunity
to discuss their child's illness has been helpful. For the
purposes of this Study, twelve families were visited during the year.
Spina Bifida—Spina Bifida (split spine) is a developmental fault
which seems to occur more often in first-born children. Functions
of the nerves below the split are absent or impaired. Legs are
paralysed, there is lack of bladder and bowel control and often
the infants develop hydrocephalus as a result of obstruction of the
circulation of the cerebral fluid. If, within hours of birth, surgery
is used to close the back wound, deformity is minimised and risk
of further nerve damage reduced. Hydrocephalus can often be
controlled by the insertion of a valve to drain excess fluid from the
brain thereby allowing intelligence to develop normally. Orthopaedic
surgery can help alleviate limb and spine deformities and,
in case of incontinence, operations to divert the urine to an opening
in the abdomen can, with special appliances and appropriate teaching,
assist children to manage their disability.
At the close of the year 1966, a survey into children with spina
bifida was launched by the G.L.C.'s Research and Intelligence
Unit with a view to ascertaining those still living at 30th September,
1966, and their various types of disabilities, etc. Furthermore,
it is intended to study annually all children born with this malformation
between 1st April, 1967, and 31st March, 1969, with a
view to computing survival rates and discovering the kind of
educational problems which will be met with in the future.
A full report on this survey is expected by the end of 1969.
In earlier days, 95% of all affected infants died but, with the
modern surgical treatment during the first 24 hours, nearly 75%
make a partial or full recovery and, of these, one half can be
expected to develop normally.
Because of changes in the Registrar-General's classification since
1963 accurate statistics are difficult to come by but it has been