London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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West Ham 1949

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for West Ham]

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During the year, 33,925 inspections were made at these cleanliness surveys,
and 1,304 instances of infestation found, a percentage of 3.84. This number refers
to individual children, as, however many times a child is found dirty in the year,
it is only recorded as one dirty child. There are many instan6es of recurrent
infestations in the same children, and these persistent offenders provide the
School Health Service with one of its most pressing problems.
Obvious dirtiness of the skin is dealt with largely by the teachers, as
well as by the nurses at their inspections. Shower baths are available at a number
of the schools and these are most helpful in maintaining the standard of bodily
cleanliness.
FOLLOW-UP. This is a very important duty of the school nurses, without
which a good deal of the value of inspection and treatment would be lost. Besides
visiting the schools for many and varied purposes the school nurses visit the homes
for the purpose of:-
(1) Following-up cases requiring treatment or ceasing prematurely to
attend the clinics.
(2) Interviewing parents concerning unsatisfactory conditions found at
the school cleanliness surveys,
(3) Visiting children to ensure that satisfactory progress is maintained
after treatment.
(4) Miscellaneous visitsĀ®
During the year the school nurses paid 5,742 home visits for the above purposes.
TREATMENT
RINGWORM. The number of cases of ringworm of the scalp treated during the year
was 2. One of them was referred for X-ray treatment.

The figures for previous years are given for comparison:-

Total Number Treated.Received X-ray Treatment
19452722
19462416
1947159
194876

MINOR AILMENTS. The treatment of minor ailments is undertaken at the school
clinics. The total number of conditions treated at these clinics during the year
was 8,027. Following is an analysis of this figures-
External Eye Diseases 673
Minor Ear Defects 574
Skin Diseases 1,152
Miscellaneous Defects 5,628
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