View report page

78
connection with B.C.G. vaccination when it was thought necessary to segregate
children from known cases of tuberculosis. The arrangements for boarding out were
made on behalf of the Council by the Invalid Children's Aid Association.
The average number boarded out at any one time during the year was 448.
compared with between 130 and 140 before 1939, 180 in 1946, 230 in 1947, 257 in 1948,
326 in 1949, and 405 in 1950. The total number of children boarded out during the
year was 949, of whom 556 were new cases and 393 were children whose stay extended
from 1950. The number of children, included in these figures, who were segregated
for the purpose of B.C.G. vaccination was 81.
B.C.G.
vaccination
At the end of the year 445 children remained boarded out.
The Council's scheme, which was initiated in September, 1950, for the B.C.G.
(Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) vaccination of tuberculin negative contacts of a known
case of tuberculosis, continued successfully throughout 1951. The number of contacts
reported as having been vaccinated by London chest physicians during the year is
2,287, which, with the 271 vaccinations in the last quarter of 1950, gives a total of
2,558 dealt with since the commencement of the scheme.
The continued co-operation in this scheme of out-county medical officers of health
and chest physicians is gratefully acknowledged. 220 London child contacts boarded
away from home were reported during 1951 as having been vaccinated with B.C.G.,
and the total to the end of 1951 was 262. Also 65 children, the majority of whom
were new-born babies, were vaccinated in hospital prior to boarding out. During
1951, 81 children were boarded-out solely for segregation during vaccination, but it
has been found that many of these could not return home after convert ing to Mantoux
positive owing to adverse home conditions or to the mother becoming unfit to undertake
the care of the child.
Mass
miniature
radiography
I am indebted to the four metropolitan regional hospital boards for the following
figures showing the number of persons (mostly working adults) examined during the
year by the boards' mass X-ray units operating in London and the number of cases
of tuberculosis whose diagnosis was established during 1951. It will be seen that a
number of the diagnoses completed during 1951 related to persons X-rayed in 1950.
Likewise a number of persons X-rayed during 1951 will remain under surveillance
until a firm diagnosis becomes established in 1952.
Men
Women
(1) Total number of persons X-rayed on miniature film
during 1951 154,095 129,907
(2) Diagnostic classification of active tuberculosis
pleted during 1951 of persons who were X-rayed
in London during 1950 and 1951:—
London residents 394 315
Non-London residents 156 99
In 1951, 57,794 civil service employees working in London were examined by the
Ministry of Health's London mass X-ray unit; 240 (4.15 per thousand) had active
lung tuberculosis requiring treatment or surveillance. Chest X-rays of 50,000 youths
aged 18 years living in and around London called for medical examination before
admission to the Armed Forces yielded 529 cases (10.6 per thousand) of apparently
active lung tuberculosis.
Foot Clinics
The Council continued to administer twenty-six foot clinics which had been
established by the metropolitan borough councils before 5th July, 1948. During
1951 the clinic at Ridgebrook Road, S.E.3 was closed, the sessions being transferred
to the clinic at 105, Shooters Hill Road, S.E.3. In April, 1951, the committee set up
by the Minister of Health under the chairmanship of Mr. V. Zachary Cope, M.D.,
M.S., F.R.C.S., published their report which recommended, inter alia, that "local