[Report 1942] / Medical Officer of Health, Bury County Borough.

  • Bury (Greater Manchester, England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1942
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1942] / Medical Officer of Health, Bury County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/20
    . Public Heal'iu Department, Tithebarn Street, Bury. ■ ' Mav, 1944. y f To the Chairman and -Alembcrs of the Education Committee, County Borout^^h of Bury. (.adies and Gentlemen, . • I have pleasure in presentin<y the Annual School iMedical Report for 1943. The method of medical inspection adopted during' the year was to medically examine entrants to the. schools and lea\'ers. Survey examinations were also made at which school children of anv ai’e were picked out from classes if thev required medical treatment or observation, 'riie second age group of eight years was not medicallv examined at routine inspections. Altogether 1,240 sc'hool children were medicallv inspected, and the number exam- ined at special medical inspections and re-inspections was 3,402. 4'he School Nui'ses made 16,371 inspections of sch.ool children in 1943, mostly for cleanliness. Out of this num])er 008 individual children were found to be unclean, and the necessary treatments were given at the School Clinic. There were 203 cases cT S('abies referred f.or treatment at the special Scabies Clinic. At the time <>f writing this report the number of cases of Scabies appears to be getting- less and the j)eak period passed. It is dinicult to eradicate .Scabies in war-time, but it is certainlv being Icept under. -■\fter four ^■ears of war-time, conditions the nutrition of the Bury School children remains verv good. In fa('t, in 1913^ 80 per cent, of the children exhibited normal nutrition, 9 per cent, were of slig]-itlv subnormal nutrition, over fi per cent, were of excellent nutrition, none were of bad nutrition, and these figures are the • best so far obtained since nutritional surveys were introduced in 1937). No doubt this verv gwd state of affairs has been brought about by the prox'ision of school meals and also by the employment of a large part of tlie population at good wages. It appears that many articles of diet previouslv thought of as necessities can be done without. To mv mjnd, however, a more plentiful supply of fats should l.)e allocated to regions where harsh climatic conditions prevail in the winter-time. Towards the end of 1943 there was a noticeable iiK'rease of the common ('old amongst the school popu- lation. This might not have been so marked if a larger share of fats had been available. Besides ('ausing absenteeism the common cold affects the bod\' that meu'e serious illnesses may follow it.