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58
Prevention of Blindness.
No special action was taken under Section 66 of the Public
Health Act, 1925, for the prevention of blindness, or for the treatment
of persons suffering from any disease or injury to the eye
Prevention of Deafness.
The following is a summary of the report submitted on receipt
of circular 1337a:—
Although otorrhoea is of frequent occurrence in the infant,
it is at this age relatively benign and usually clears up readily.
Most of the serious otorrhoeas with impairment of hearing are
sequelae of measles and scarlet fever. Although at times the
shortage of accommodation at the Isolation Hospital does not
permit of the admission of all cases of scarlet fever, all complicated
cases, including those with ear involvement, were admitted.
During epidemics of measles, the work of t he Health Visitors is
largely devoted to visiting infected houses. For those cases
requiring it, there are arrangements for home nursing, and also
convalescent home treatment.
The Council has made adequate arrangements with the hospital
authorities for the operative treatment of adenoids and enlarged
tonsils. Most of these children are detained at the hospital after
the operation.
Arrangements were made for the admission of a deaf child at
the age of 3½ to a residential school for the deaf, the child being
detained there at the cost of the Local Authority until she reached
school age.
Cancer.
The number of deaths from cancer is still on the low side,
being 55, compared with figures of 45, 37, 52 and 50 for the previous
years. With the ageing of the population, this figure will in
some years time, become much higher,