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(j) Tuberculosis. All definite cases of tuberculosis found
by assistant school medical officers are notified to the medical
officer of health. Suspicious cases are always referred to the
tuberculosis officer for examination and report. The number of
cases so referred during this year was 29.
The Council have a special sanatorium for children at
Langdon Hill, Essex, with accommodation for 40 children. The
tuberculosis officer is responsible for all children who are
admitted to and discharged from this institution. All cases are
examined by a school dental surgeon and treated where necessary
before they are admitted. Particulars of the work of this institution
are given in another section of this report.
Close co-operation between the tuberculosis section and the
school medical section is maintained relative to school children
who are considered by the tuberculosis officer to be unfit for
school. These cases are notified to the school medical officer
who officially excludes them from school attendance until they
are considered to be fit for school. Many of these children do not
show signs of active tuberculosis.
During the year 121 cases were reported by the tuberculosis
officer as being unfit for school.
VII. SPECIAL TREATMENT SERVICES.
School Dental Service.
The staff of the Authority's school dental service consists
at present of five whole time dentists, to each of whom an area
is allotted, and each of whom carries out treatment in a school
dental clinic. These dental clinics are distinct from any other
dental clinics which may be conducted by the local authority.
The dental clinics are not all equally suitable for the purpose for
which they are being used, and the type of equipment also varies
to a slight degree. General anaesthetics have not so far been used
for extraction purposes.
Recently I have given considerable attention to all aspects
of school dental work, and a report suggesting certain alterations
in staffing, equipment and procedure was adopted by the Education
Committee. In my next annual report I shall deal with this
question in detail, and in the present report I intend to discuss the
work which has been done during the last eighteen years—that
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