[Report 1958] / School Medical Officer of Health, Derbyshire County Council.

  • Derbyshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1958
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1958] / School Medical Officer of Health, Derbyshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ai (9) B.C.G. Vaccination: 1 he B.C.G. vaccination scheme offered to thirteen-year-old children in attendance at County Council schools continued throughout the year. Response has been excellent, reaching in some cases, 75%. My thanks are due to the Headmasters and teaching staff for their help in this very important campaign to eliminate tuberculosis amongst the older school children.” Dr. M. ALLAN (Part of South Division) : “A much better idea of the general health and well-being of the school children can be gathered not so much from individual medical inspection, but from seeing the children in the class-rooms, at their free play, and also taking part in physical education, and from all these observations it is quite obvious that their general physique is very good indeed. Nearly all the children fall into nutrition category ‘Satisfactory’ and the very few who are in category ‘Unsatisfactory’ are usually suffering from definite illness. The children’s good health and high standard of nutrition is the result of good home care assisted by school meals and school milk. The general cleanliness of the pupils is quite satisfactory, and during the year I have seen very few cases of pediculosis and impetigo. I have no scabies in my school area. Because of subsidence in the district, a tremendous amount of repair and replacement has been done in the schools, and quite a number have been re-decorated, which quite transforms the appearance of the schools and must be a great encouragement not only to the children, but also to the teaching staff. Not only should good provision be made for the children, but adequate accom- modation should be provided for the teaching staff. This is sadly lacking in some of the old schools. There was no major outbreak of infectious disease during the year, so that the children’s health was not impaired in this way, nor was there any decrease in the usual high standard of attendance. Diphtheria Immunisation : There is no doubt that the diphtheria immunisation scheme has been overshadowed by polio’ vaccination, and moreover many mothers have had no experience whatever of the disease, diphtheria. The best time to do the immunisation is at about one year old or slightly earlier when they are attending the Child Welfare Clinic, and a “booster” on their admission to school. Whooping Cough Vaccination : Towards the end of the year, the scheme for whooping cough vaccination began but the acceptances were very few, and it is impossible to make any reasonable comment on the scheme at the present time. Polio’ Vaccination : The polio’ vaccination clinics were held regularly, and there was a high percentage of attendance, and no untoward reactions from the injections. I have never, at any time, seen an allergic response in penicillin sensitivity, which has been reported in the Medical Journals from time to time.