[Report 1961] / School Medical Officer of Health, Oldham County Borough.

  • Oldham (England). County Borough Council. nb2004302054.
Date:
1961
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1961] / School Medical Officer of Health, Oldham County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    gratifying that during the year it was possible to effect this increase but nevertheless it is tragic that permanent staff cannot be obtained. The employment of temporary part-time staff serves a useful purpose, but it does not build up an efficient and stable service. There is an urgent need for dental health education to be given to children and to their parents. It is quite impossible to launch any campaign of this sort with the chronic lack of permanent staff. Two evening sessions per week were held for older children. These sessions prevent these children from missing important school lessons and are to be commended. Apart from poliomyelitis, the notifiable infectious diseases caused no con¬ cern. Even dysentery, which from time to time has disturbed school routine and caused extra labour, produced only 44 cases. There were 16 cases of whooping cough notified and confirmed and 3 of these were in children who had received the protective injections. It is interesting to record that 5 of the cases were children attending Junior Departments and 2 were attending Secondary Modern Schools. None of these older children had been protected against whooping cough. An outbreak of poliomyelitis was the most disturbing problem of the year. This outbreak was the worst that has ever occurred in the Borough and it also involved the adjacent districts of Saddleworth, Chadderton, Shaw, Royton, Middleton, and the part of Manchester adjacent to Chadder¬ ton. The outbreak lasted from July to December and there were 18 cases notified (2 adults, 3 schoolchildren, 13 pre-school children.) Of the 3 cases which occurred among schoolchildren 1 was non-paralytic in type and all made a complete recovery. It is to be regretted that 1 case occurred in a nursery class. The parents of this child were offered vaccination but this was refused by the mother. The Headmaster of St. Hugh’s Junior School contracted the disease and died. He did not reside in Oldham so this case is not recorded as a notified case. This was a very tragic happening. It was not necessary to close any school or class, and the only restriction was on tonsil and adenoid operations. I wish to record here the co-operation I received from the Headteachers and staff of those schools in which cases occurred. The occurrence of these cases threw a burden of responsibility and extra work upon the teachers and they gave myself and staff every assis¬ tance. I also wish to record the assistance they gave when vaccination sessions were arranged. This enabled us to protect a very high percentage of children. It is gratifying to record that no secondary cases occurred in the schools concerned. There were 2 cases of pulmonary tuberculosis notified and confirmed. Both made satisfactory progress and were discharged from hospital after a stay of some months. No cases of non-pulmonary tuberculosis occurred during the year. Throughout the year poliomyelitis vaccination was again pressed with full vigour and the outbreak of poliomyelitis helped to swell the number of consents received from parents and draw in some of the laggards. I cannot speak too highly of the co-operation that was received from the teachers and I do appreciate that this caused disturbance of school routine and extra work and responsibility. It is anticipated, however, that in the early future such disturbance as is caused will be much reduced and it is our earnest hope that a very high percentage of children will have received the primary course of vaccination prior to school entry and only booster doses will be necessary in the schools. An urgent demand for smallpox vaccination arose as the result of a party of children from Fitton Hill Secondary Modern School having booked a school trip to the Costa Brava. Within a few hours of their departure a local Travel Agency was advised that as the children would be travelling through France they had to produce a valid certificate of vaccina¬ tion as a case of smallpox had been reported in Madrid. It would have been very disappointing for all concerned had the trip to be cancelled so arrange¬ ments were made for vaccination to be done the day of their departure.