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Personal Hygiene.
The work of the school nursing staff was referred to in the section on the welfare
of school children. One of their duties lies in the routine cleanliness surveys which are
carried out each term. The numbers found to be infested at these surveys are augmented by
others who are discovered at periodic or special medical inspections. The numbers found at
periodic medical inspection are very few, the main reason being that parents receive notice
of this examination and therefore have some time to see that their children are presented
in a satisfactory condition. In the case of cleanliness or hygiene surveys carried out by
the school nurses neither the parents nor the children receive notice of the inspection, and
the pupils are found in the condition in which they habitually attend school. While the
responsibility of cleansing is upon the parents, children found to be infested are followed
up until the school nurse is satisfied that they are clean.
During the year 63,787 inspections were made at these cleanliness surveys and 457
instances of infestation found. On the basis of a school population of 29,453 this gives
a proportion of uncleanliness of 1.55 per cent which compares with 2.59 Per cent in 1955
calculated in the same way on a school population of 29,487. This number refers to individual
children, because however many times a child is found dirty in the year, it is only recorded
as one case. There are many instances of recurrent infestations in the same children, and
these persistent offenders provide the School Health Service with one of its most pressing
problems. Infestation in such children can never be eradicated until the whole family is
freed from it.
The procedure for dealing with infestation in school children adopted by the Education
Committee in 1953 and described in detail in the annual report for that year, was continued
throughout 1956. The following figures relate to the work done during this period:-
Total number of individual pupils found to be infested 457
Total of individual pupils in respect of whom cleansing Notices
were issued (Section 54(2) Education Act, 1944 176
Total of individual pupils In respect of whom cleansing Orders
were Issued (Section 54(3) Education Act, 1944 12
It is interesting to record that, although 12 cleansing Orders were issued, only 6
children were compulsorily cleansed at the Treatment Centre. Experience shows that the force
of the Cleansing Notice has the effect in many cases of making the parents realise their
responsibilities so that, even although it was necessary to issue a cleansing Order, by the
time it is in the parents hands a number of the children have been satisfactorily cleansed.
During the four years under review the percentage of uncleanliness has dropped from 4.6 in
1953 to 1.55 in the present year.
There was a reduction of 99 cleansing Notices and 36 cleansing Orders issued during the
year compared with the previous year.
Twenty-seven cases had a second Notice issued during the year, and 3 cases a third
Notice. We refer to these as "careless families". There have been a number of indications,
however, of the salutary effect of the cleansing campaign upon the parents, and fathers in
particular have realised, often for the first time, the condition into which their children
have been allowed to fall and have taken active steps to remedy the situation.
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