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Skin tests will be carried out on Tuesdays and test read on Fridays,
when negative reactors will receive an injection of the B.C.G. vaccine.
The work will be done during term time.
Meetings have been held with head teachers of secondary schools in
Hornsey and Tottenham to seek their co-operation and to ensure the
success of the scheme.
Tuberculin "Patch Tests" and School Entrants
During the year the Area Committee agreed that routine patch testing
of children should be carried out during their first year at school,
subject to the approval of Hornsey and Tottenham Education Committees.
This has since been obtained.
Tuberculin testing of children at the age of five years can be carried
out very simply by the so called "jelly patch" method.
Fewer than 5% of children of five years of age are likely to be "patch
positive" though this may vary from school to school and from time to
time. It should, however, provide an excellent means of assessing the
progress made in the drive against tuberculosis.
A five year old child who is "patch positive" may have been infected
at home, and arrangements will be made for a follow-up investigation
of the home contacts of such children. It has been said that from such
investigations one case of undiagnosed infectious tuberculosis is discovered
for every 250 children patch tested.
Speech Therapy
There are two whole-time and three part-time speech therapists employed
in the Area, equivalent to three whole-time staff. The following
comments on the work of the department have been made by the Head
Speech Therapist, Miss J. Came, l.c.s.t.:—
"The value of preventive work with the toddlers has again been
demonstrated in 1954. Thanks to parent co-operation, many children
with delayed speech development or primary stammer were found to
show improvement when reviewed after a few months. Several have
later achieved normal speech without clinic attendance."
In the older age groups, stammerers form the highest proportion of
children attending speech clinics. Environmental factors and the surprising
number of popular misconceptions on the nature of this distressing
handicap may seriously jeopardise successful treatment. Here, too,
the co-operation of parents and teachers is essential, and the therapist
uses every opportunity to educate the general public on its responsibilities
towards the stammerer.
Staff changes in Hornsey last autumn have not seriously interrupted
continuity of treatment, owing to speedy re-appointments.
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