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at school dental inspections. Her efforts have been well received and favourably
commented on by head teachers.
During the year, an inspection of the Council's dental services was carried out
by a Dental Officer of the Department of Education and Science. He was in general
satisfied with the service, but drew attention to the variation in standard of
accommodation and equipment, the low percentage of dental inspections, the need to
use surgery assistants less on clerical duties, and the absence of x-ray units in some
clinics. The Council's plans for the dental service already coincide with the various
recommendations of the Inspector, with the exception of the provision of increased
x-ray facilities. At present x-ray facilities are available at four clinics which are
staffed by experienced officers. Increasing these facilities could lead to the
installation of expensive equipment which was not fully used, and which might have to
be operated by officers whose experience was limited.
PREVENTiON OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE
The School Health Service, in conjunction with the Council's other health services,
is responsible for the control of all infectious disease in schools. In practice those
which most frequently call for action are as follows:
1) Gastro-intestinal infections
The most usual infection is dysentery, which is not uncommon in
schools, and in the case of infants schools it is usually difficult to
control. The type of disease, however, is rarely serious, although it is
usually confused in the minds of parents with much more serious types
of dysentery.
Reference is made to an outbreak of this condition in an infants school
earlier in this report.
The routine food hygiene work of the department continued during the year. Of
the 50 school kitchens in the Borough 17 have been awarded the Food Hygiene
Certificate of the Clean Food Scheme. 43 kitchen and serving staff attended courses
of nine lectures given by public health inspectors.
2) Winter Vomiting
This is a disease characterized by a sudden onset of nausea, vomiting
and giddiness. It is thought to be a virus condition and probably spread
by droplet infection. An outbreak occurred at two schools during the
year, involving approximately 78 children.
3) Infectious Hepatitis
The London Borough of Ealing is one of the few areas in the country
where this disease is notifiable. In the event of a case being notified
in a school-chi Id, class contacts are offered gamma globulin, which is
a serum extract which gives some measure of protection against the
disease. Six cases were notified in five schools during the year, and a
total of 58 children were given gamma globulin. None of these children
subsequently developed infectious hepatitis.
4) Tuberculosis
The School Health Service is actively concerned in preventing
tuberculosis. On the child's entry into school, subject to the parent's
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