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Patients requiring home nursing or surgical dressings are
attended to by the nurses from the Croydon Nursing Association,
by arrangement with that organisation. Their assistance is a
valuable adjunct in the care of domiciliary cases.
Contact Examination
The examination and subsequent supervision of persons coming
into contact with patients suffering from Tuberculosis plays an
important part in the prevention of the spread of infection.
During 1965, 544 persons were examined for the first time as
contacts of notified cases of Tuberculosis, giving a contactcase
ratio of 6 for each notified case during the year.
Of these contacts, 4 were found to be tuberculous. This is
equal to a Tuberculosis rate per 1,000 contacts of 8 compared
with 0.47 per 1,000 of the general population. In addition,
there were 3 found to be tuberculous who had been under observation
from previous years.
B. C. G. Vaccination
The use of B.C.G. vaccination for contacts has been continued
during 1965 and regular sessions are held at the Clinic
for this purpose. 330 contacts were successfully vaccinated
during the year. In addition 11 nurses and domestics were
successfully vaccinated, and 61 babies of tuberculous parents
were vaccinated in hospital during the neonatal period.
During the year under review the scheme for the B.C.G.
Vaccination of all school children between 13 and 14 years of
age was continued in Croydon. Staff from the Chest Clinic visit
the Schools and carry out the necessary Skin Testing and
vaccination with B.C.G. The response by parents to this protection
for their children has been satisfactory and there were
no untoward difficulties or complications.
The Staff for this scheme are provided by the Local Authority
but work under the direction of the Chest Physician, and
this affords another practical example of co-operation between
those responsible for treatment and prevention of Tuberculosis.
B.C.G. Vaccination for School Leavers
The total number of children skin tested - 2,936
Number found to be negative- 2,435
Number vaccinated with B.C.G- 2,423