[Report 1958] / Medical Officer of Health, Dudley County Borough.
- Dudley (England). County Borough Council.
- Date:
- 1958
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1958] / Medical Officer of Health, Dudley County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![The generally satisfactory standard of nutrition amongst school children has been maintained., Oat of a total of 3jOl6 children examined, only 1.6?% were found to fall seriously short of a reasonable standard of healtlu Infectious Disease Incidence of notifiable infectious disease was remarkably lov/. Scarlet fever alone showed an increase on recent j’^ears but this infection is^nov/adays, so mild and so rarely attended by compl.ications that its continued notification seems of doubtful va,lue„ Poliomi'-elitis was again absent but this could certainlj'' not be attributed to immunity derived from Vcaccinationr. In common with ot]icr eligible group 3j the proportion of Dudley's school'children enjoying this valuable pi-otection is only half the no-tional averc?,ge. If, in the future. Dudley is again visited by a serious outbrea,!: cl this disoasej the majority of parents who are neglectii their present opportunities will not be able to protect th.eir -chil.dren on short notice as protection takes some tir.e to develop after iu.joctions. Details concerning notification of. infecticu.s diseases received in respect of school children are given belov.u Age Djarlet Whoeping Group Measles Diphtheria Fever _ Folio- ju/elitis Meningitis Dysentery M, F., 5 - 10 13 9 10-15 Tuberculosis I'D F. 13 1? M, F. M. M,. M, The following notifioatigns of .tuberculosis in children of age groups 5-15 have been received.. Male: i'emale: lotal Pulmonary Non-Pulmonary The number of childrer at the end of the yea.r v.'as: tne age group r '0 on. ono 'cuoer'Culosis regi: Males Females Pulmonary 52 35 Non-Pulmonary 18 4 Notification of pulr.aonaru disease., as first sighsy appears to cenrinue at a disturbingly high level. In actual fact the majority of these children are picked up either .as ccntacts of known cases, or by cur own tuberculin testing survey of school entrcints, before they have beco.m.e obviously ill, and this early asccrtainm.ent ensures., usually- a satisfactory and rapid response to treatment. School entrants continued to bo skin tested .for evidence of previous infection. The previous,'and rather inaccurate, method of patch testing v/as replaced by the Hcaf test.. The greater sensitiveness of this test resulted in the proportion of children sh^v/ing evidence of past infection increasing to 6.4^, All such children :ire, of course, fully investigated by the Chest Clinic to confirm the successful overcoming of infection,- and their family contacts X-ro,yed, in an effort to tra.cG tho source of infection- The testing and B«CoG; ■'aocina.ticn of 13 year old children continued., tho proportion found to have been infected falling again to Tho Mass X-ray Unit decided that it was no longer profitab.lo to X-ray all. school leavers.. This gives an indication of tho effectiveness of the scheme in controlling this infection among school childreip,^ -■?b—](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29171234_0032.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
