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to applicants whose families include cases of tuberculosis, and
several such cases have been satisfactorily rehoused. The number
of families so benefited is, however, only a very small fraction
of all the tuberculous families in Wood Green.
B.C.G. Vaccination of Selected School-leavers
In several continental countries, vaccination against tuberculosis
by the Bacillus Calmette Guerin has been practised for many
years, but it has not been used to anything like the same extent
in this country. Recently, however, the Medical Research Council
has been carrying out a scheme whereby selected school-leavers are
vaccinated with this organism and kept under observation for a
subsequent period of three years. Among other districts in the
Home Counties, Wood Green has been participating in this scheme.
With the full consent of the parents and the approval of the
Divisional Executive Education Committee, all children in their
last year at the Secondary Modern Schools have been given the
opportunity to be X-rayed and tuberculin-tested during their
penultimate term at school. Of those found to be quite free of any
evidence of tuberculosis and tuberculin-negative, one-half are
given a dose of B.C.G. Vaccine and the other half act as controls.
They are again X-rayed and retested during the last term at school,
and thereafter X-rayed and tuberculin-tested at yearly intervals
for at least three years. The scheme has been in operation now
since the beginning of 1951 and although the numbers dealt with
in Wood Green are small, the aggregate for all the districts
throughout the country which are participating, should be
sufficient to provide valuable information as to the actual value
of this form of vaccination as a preventive agent in tuberculosis,
and help to decide whether it should be widely adopted throughout
the country.
POLIOMYELITIS
Only one case of poliomyelitis occurred during the year as
compared with four in the previous year. The patient was a girl
of 16 years and the attack was fortunately not a very severe one.
There is still—five months afterwards—some slight resulting weakness
in the affected limb, but every prospect of this clearing up
completely.
DYSENTERY
During the year, 27 cases of Sonne Dysentery were notified.
In two instances, three cases occurred in one household, and in
three instances there were two cases in one household. All the
others were single cases. This disease is not in itself very serious.