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
Hillingdon 1972
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hillingdon]
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The figures demonstrate the trend.
| Year | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. of cases | 68 | 112 | 184 | 237 |
There has been mounting evidence that the head louse over the past two or three years may
be becoming resistent to the insecticides commonly used to cleanse the heads of children, and the
nursing service has been experimenting with newer treatment such as "Malathion" in place of the
previously successful D.D.T. and dieldrin insecticides.
Since the nursing service can only inspect a school at intervals, it is important that one of the parents in a family should examine the heads of the children weekly and where infestation is present carry out energetic treatment of the whole family to eliminate this condition.
| 1971 | 1972 | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of cleanliness inspections | 61,030 | 64,486 |
| Number of children found infested for the first time | 184 | 237 |
Skin Defects
The proportion of skin defects found was similar to the previous year. The intermediate examination
produced more children with skin defects than the other two groups. Many of the skin troubles
are due to infections such as impetigo, various kinds of dermatitis, and verruca. This latter condition
affects all ages of children, but is mainly brought to light among the junior and first year seniors
when inspections prior to swimming reveal warts of the feet. Last year a form of treatment of verrucae
was adopted in an endeavour to control the large number of children reported by headteachers
to suffer from this condition. Results were obtained through the year from clinics using this treatment.
Over a period of 8 months, from December 1971 to July 1972, 12 clinics treated 180 children
with 136 successful results. Of the 44 unsuccessfully treated, 10 were seen later by chiropodists
and the others applied for treatment elsewhere.
Vision Defects
Defects of the eyes account for 36.6% of all defects found at routine medical inspection.
1,023 children were discovered to have less than normal vision, 268 needing treatment at ophthalmic
clinics, private opticians or hospital and 755 requiring observation; these latter were recalled for
re-testing after varying periods of time. Ninety of the 268 children were entrants to school, 58 were
the leavers, and the remaining 120 were scattered through the year groups. These figures indicate
the necessity for close inspection of visual acuity throughout school life and the Council has
adopted the recommendation that all children shall be so tested every two years. This will not
necessarily reduce the number of children presenting with poor visual acuity, but the defect will be
discovered more quickly.
The lower incidence of squint among the children compared with 1971 and 1970, indicates
that children with squint are being found and referred earlier. It is important that this defect is
treated in the early months of a child's life to obtain maximum benefit from treatment. Delay inevitably
results in the squinting eye being of little or no use to the child in later years.
The routine vision testing of school children by experienced school nurses complements the
normal vision testing at entrance, leaver and intermediate routine medical inspections. An additional
vision test has been given at the age of seven for many years past and in September 1972 further
vision tests were introduced for the nine and thirteen year-olds so that all children are now given a
test at two year intervals.
136