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49
INFECTIOUS DISEASES IN SCHOOLS
At the beginning of the year an 8 year old Pakistani girl was admitted to a
local primary school. The school was ignorant of the fact that she was a contact
of her sister who had been in hospital six weeks earlier suffering from typhoid
fever. Owing to difficulty with the language, the parents had not understood
very definite instructions at the time that the patient's sister should not go
to school until careful tests had shown that she was not infectious. However,
she had only been at school for seven days when the mistake was discovered
and she was sent home, and admitted to hospital for further tests. Tests
were carried out on her classmates as a precaution and all proved negative.
Several cases of ringworm of the scalp were discovered in five of the
Borough's Primary Schools. In each case school contacts were examined for
signs of infection, and where necessary excluded from school for treatment by
the family doctor. Although still a fairly infectious condition, it is not
nearly so prevalent as it was before the last war.
There were no cases of diphtheria, although the germ was isolated from the
nose of a child in hospital for a sinus operation. Fortunately the organism was
eventually found to be of the non-virulent type, which does not produce the disease.
The programme of BCG vaccination of susceptible 13-year-old school
children continued during the year.
Infant school children were included in a "crash" programme of vaccination
against measles during the summer in an attempt to obtain the maximum
protection against the disease before the expected rise in the number of cases
during the winter. 2,192 infant and nursery school children were given one
dose of the vaccine during the campaign.
HEALTH EDUCATION
Apart from the various programmes of Health Education arranged by the
schools themselves, Health visitors contributed to this important work by
giving talks to secondary school children on a variety of topics, including
the care of young children. Visits were also arranged for senior girls to day
nurseries and child health centres.
This work was supplemented by regular visits from the two full-time
health educators employed by the Inner London Education Authority.
During the year, County Hall provided the setting for a conference for
teachers, school health staff and others on the subject "Drug taking in school
children". Members of the Health Department staff attended. It was felt that the
subject was of such importance that it should be followed up by local conferences
in the various Inner London Boroughs. Preparations were well in hand by the end
of the year for such a conference to be held in the Borough's Health Department.
TRAINING OF SCHOOL HEALTH STAFF
Regular meetings of school nursing staff and school medical officers
provided opportunities for a limited amount of in-service training. In addition
a senior member of the medical staff served on an Inner London Education
Authority Working Party on the training of School Medical Officers and also
lectured at a training course for new entrants to school nursing.
SPECIAL SCHOOLS IN THE BOROUGH
Stormont House open air school provides an excellent education for
"delicate" children, i.e. those with a history of debility, asthma, nervousness
(including school phobia) and other disorders which have caused difficulties in
the ordinary school. The original intention was that the stay at the school
should be for a period of two terms or so to allow the child to regain strength
and confidence before returning to ordinary school. However, the increasing
use of the school for children with difficulties which are largely emotional in
origin and who come from a disturbed home background has meant that the average
length of stay at the school is increasing and there is now a waiting list.