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Local Health Authority under their arrangements for the prevention
of tuberculosis, rather than as a part of the School Health Service. It
is anticipated that the County Health Committee will give approval
to the scheme and that B.C.G. vaccinations may be commenced in
Barking next year.
During the year a 14-year-old girl attending one of the secondary
modern schools developed tuberculous broncho-pneumonia and was
admitted to hospital. She herself was in contact with an uncle who is
presumed to be the source of her infection. Shortly afterwards a second
girl, who sat next to her in class, was admitted to hospital with a
pleural effusion. Arrangements were therefore made for the remaining
girls in the class and members of the teaching staff to have X-ray
examinations. As a result of these a third girl was brought under close
surveillance at the Chest Clinic and later in the year she also was
notified as case of tuberculosis and admitted to hospital.
It was decided to carry out preliminary skin tests on the remaining
girls in the school and only to X-ray those who showed a positive test.
The "flour paper " jelly test was chosen but the results indicated that,
at any rate in our hands, this particular test was not reliable and
advantage was taken of the visit of a mass X-ray unit later in the year
to X-ray all the remaining girls. One case of primary tuberculosis in
a 13-year-old girl was discovered, but this girl was not in contact with
the other cases and the source of infection was believed to be outside
school.
Athlete's Foot and Plantar Warts
You have taken a great interest in the problem of athlete's foot
and plantar arts, and you decided not to allow plimsolls to be transferred
from one child to another since I was unable to assure you that
there was any effective method of sterilising these shoes without
damaging them. I did seek your authority to carry out certain trials
in an endeavour to find a harmless but effective method, although I
warned you that results may take some time to obtain.
Dr. M. Adamson has for some time been very interested in these
foot infections and has been carrying out foot inspections in the
schools. When she has had the opportunity of completing her survey
we should have information relating to the incidence of these conditions
in Barking school children, which will serve as a basis for our
further investigations.
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