[Report 1951] / School Medical Officer of Health, Coventry.
- Coventry (England). City Council.
- Date:
- 1951
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1951] / School Medical Officer of Health, Coventry. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![P/EDiATRic Clinic. The great majority of cases seen by Dr. Parry Williams at the Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital Pcedialric Clinic are referred direct by family doctors. Some are, however, referred by the Assistant School Medical Officers either at the request or with the consent of the family doctors. There is a helpful interchange of medical reports from all these sources. There is no apparent problem to overcome in Coventry in order to attain satisfactory co-operation between family doctors,, specialists and school medical officers. Anti-Tuberculosis Campaign (B.C.G. Vaccination of School Leavers). During 1951, the Education Committee agreed to a request from the Medical Research Council for the Authority's co-opera- tion in undertaking important research in the campaign against tuberculosis. Basically, this controlled research involved the hypo- dermic administration of anti-tuberculosis vaccine to hoys and girls leaving school at the age of 15 years, and the subsequent follow-up of these volunteers for at least three years thereafter. (Permission of appropriate parents and guardians to this procedure was of course obtained. Clinics were set up at three schools, namely,, Frederick Bird, Longford Park and Hearsall, and it was made convenient for children attending other schools to visit one of these centres. All children taking pari were X-rayed and subjected to skin tests during their penultimate school term and three days later the skin reactions were assessed. Those children with negative reactions were re-tested and innoculated with B.C.G. (Bacillus Calmette- Gueriri^vaccine. All selected children were X-rayed during their filial term. In addition, any children found to have been in direct contact with tuberculosis or known to he harbouring the disease, were referred to the Coventry Chest Clinic for essential treatment and observation. Dr. J. P. W. Hughes, of the Medical Research Council and physician in charge of the B.C.G. experiment, visited Coventry to deal with children during March, ]idy and December. In all, 1,700 children took part and 412 children received innocida- tions. Of those widespread infectious diseases which regularly affect people in Great Britain^ none causes greater concern to Public Health workers than tubercidosis. There are many patients who remain under treatment for years and the resultant loss of nuDi- power to the nation must be very large indeed. Moreover there is a sizeable number of children, who, by direct contact, are vulnerable to infection from phthisical patients. Especially is this so under overcrowded housing conditions. It is therefore against such a. background as this that one readily co-operates with the AKedical Research Council in their work with susceptible school leavers. The latter, it is anticipated, will thereby receive adequate protection against the disease at a vital period in their lives.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29124529_0018.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
