London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Dagenham 1958

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Dagenham]

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Uncleanliness
The number of children found with vermin and/or nits during the year was 197
No children can be compulsorily cleansed in the Borough as we have no cleansing
station now, but frequent attendances of the infested children at school clinics and repeated
home visits by school nurses have resolved the problem to a small nucleus of
recurrently infested families who require constant supervision, and a larger number of
children who are only very temporarily infested and quickly cleansed by the parents.
Infestation with Vermin
All cases of infestation, however slight, are recorded.
This return relates to instances of infestation and not to individual pupils.
(i) Total number of examinations of pupils in the schools
by school nurses or other authorised persons 30,111
(ii) Number of instances of infestation found 209
(iii) Number of cleansing notices issued (Section 54 (2)
Education Act, 1944) 209
(iv) Number of disinfestations carried out:—
By school nurses 93
By parents 116
VISUAL DEFECTS
Vision tests were carried out on all children at the school medical inspections and
229 referred for treatment at the Ophthalmic Clinics and 205 kept under observation.

Eye Diseases, Defective Vision and Squint

Number of cases deals with
By the AuthorityOtherwise
External and other (excluding errors of refraction and squint)498464
Errors of refraction (including squint)1,258
Number of pupils for whom spectacles were prescribed640

Colour Vision
Colour vision testing was continued at all school medical inspections on all pupils
at or over the age of 11 years and the number of defects found were:—
Boys: 55 Total examined Boys 2,281
Girls: 21 „ „ Girls 1,986
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