London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Ealing 1929
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Ealing]
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63
INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
By means of the returns of non-notifiable infectious disease,
supplied at the end of each week by the head-teachers, it was
ascertained that during the year the number of children absent
from school on account of these diseases were as follows:—
Measles 383
Whooping Cough 365
Chicken Pox 361
Mumps 152
On no occasion was it found necessary to give a certificate
under Schedule IV, Rule 23, of the Code.
Children to the number of 324 were excluded during the year under Article 53 of the Education Code for the following conditions :
| Conjunctivitis | 3 |
| Impetigo | 227 |
| Ringworm of Head | 45 |
| Ringworm of Body | 5 |
| Scabies | 16 |
| Other Skin Diseases | 27 |
| Total | 323 |
FOLLOWING UP.
No scheme of medical inspection and treatment can be complete
without a well organised system of following-up. It is only by
following-up that the full results of medical inspection can be
obtained. However appreciative the parents may be of school
medical inspection and however much many of them may welcome
the treatment required, unless they are visited by specially trained
School Nurses who can encourage them to seek the treatment
advised and to give at home the care and treatment recommended,
medical inspection loses much of its value. Parents are apt to put
off and put off seeking treatment or acting on advice and it requires
the services of the School Nurse to assist them to make up their
minds or to take the necessary steps at once. With some parents
it is simply a matter of giving assistance in making up their minds,
with others it is a question of convincing them of the need for