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CONTROL OF VERMIN AND SCABIES
By the courtesy of the School Medical Officer particulars
regarding the cleanliness surveys in schools have been obtained and
are as follows:-
Number of children examined
Primary Schools 11,227
Secondary Modern Schools 3,593
14,820
Number of children requiring treatment 158
Number of formal cleansing notices issued 88
Number of children cleansed by Local Health
Authority 20
There was an increase of over 3,000 in the number of
cleanliness inspections but a drop in the number of children who had
become infested with head lice, from 286 in 1950 to 158 in 1951.
This is a very satisfactory sign of improvement in personal
cleanliness amongst the school population.
During the year applications were received for the cleansing
of 3 persons who had become infested with Scabies. The treatment
was carried out at Hammersmith Cleansing Station with the kind
co-operation of the Medical Officer of Health of Hammersmith.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
With the exception of measles, the incidence of notifiable
infectious disease was very low in 1951. No case of diphtheria
occurred, and of the four cases of cerebrospinal infection notified
only two were confirmedg one, a man aged 32, as Acute Encephalitis,
- this illness followed on an attack of Chicken Pox and the patient
made a satisfactory recovery: and one as Meningitis, an infant of
one year, who also made a satisfactory and complete recovery.
There was a minor epidemic of measles in the first months of
1951 and notifications were very high during January, February and
March, the type of illness was not however a severe one and no
deaths occurred from measles.
There was no outbreak of dysentery or food poisoning, cases
being single and scattered over the Borough; the highest number
notified in any one month was four.
There were some signs in the early weeks of 1951 that influenza
was likely to assume epidemic form. Information received from
local practitioners and from the office of the Ministry of National
Insurance seemed to show that the incidence of sickness in the
working population was increasing abnormally during January and that
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