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SECTION 7
SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
I wish to thank the Area Medical Officer for enabling me to give an account
of the work of the School Health Service in Ealing for the year. The very severe winter
conditions made it necessary to close some schools for short periods due to the
freezing of the water supply to the lavatories but it is satisfactory to report that the
health of the children appeared to be unaffected by the exceptionally long and intense
cold weather. Several outbreaks of winter vomiting occurred. This condition which
occurs only during winter months is of unknown origin but may be caused by a virus.
The striking features of this condition are the rapid onset and equally rapid recovery.
The main symptom is of course vomiting and less frequently there is diarrhoea as
well. Children may be apparently quite well on arrival at school and a few hours later
be prostrate. Recovery is usually complete in one or two days. Although it is difficult
to produce accurate figures, as winter vomiting is a condition which can easily be
confused with similar ones, it is probable that some 600 children were absent from
school at some time during the winter. Over 15 schools in the area reported sizeable
outbreaks; two of them in fact reported numbers of over 100 affected. At Little
Ealing Infants school there were 101 absences and at Cardinal Wiseman Mixed
Secondary School there were 188 absences. Probably no school escaped entirely.
ROUTINE MEDICAL INSPECTIONS
Details of the three routine medical inspections carried out in schools are set out below.

Classification of General Condition
Satisfactory 6,402
Unsatisfactory 18