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Physiotherapy.
Two of the three local authority clinic premises which were equipped for sunlight
therapy, have been used twice weekly throughout the year for children under 5 years and for
school children. Details of the treatment provided during the year are as follows:-
Children under 5 Years
Sunlight Massage Exerc ises
No. of individual children
who attended 487 17 46
No. of attendances made by
above children 6,959 111 477
Handicapped Children.
Attempts to detect potentially "Handicapped" children at an early age have been
intensified and measures to co-ordinate the various people and services interested in
these children have continued. The total number of such children under 5 years brought
to the notice of the Senior Assistant Medical Officer is almost double the number reported
in the previous year. Special efforts are being made to detect the earliest signs of
spasticity or of deafness so that treatment may be begun at the earliest possible stage, anc
the mother given guidance and help in the training of her child. The following table shows
the numbers of children under 5 years (divided into age groups) who might come within the
handicapped category:-
Aged 4-5 years 27
" 3-4 " 11
" 1-2 " 3
" Under 1 year 60
Of these 25 have actually been ascertained by the School Medical Officers. Health
Visitors are now given the opportunity to attend the medical examination at which ascertainment
is considered.
Tuberculosis and B.C.S.
The table below shows the number of notifications of tuberculosis in children under
five during the last five years, in comparison with the total notifications at all ages.
With the virtual elimination of tubercle-infected milk, the number of cases of tuberculosis
arising in early childhood gives a rough indication of the risks of infection from human
sources within the circle of family, relatives or neighbours in which the child spends its
life, it may be expected to rise or fall in broad parallel with the number of open adult
cases of the disease among the community and with the degree of success in preventing the
spread of Infection by precautionary measures and in protecting child-contacts of known cases
by B.C.G. The occurrence of a case of tuberculosis in childhood will sometimes lead to the detection of an unknown case of open infectious disease in a related adult.