[Report 1945] / Medical Officer of Health, Smethwick County Borough.

  • Smethwick (Worcestershire, England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1945
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1945] / Medical Officer of Health, Smethwick County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/46 (page 25)
    INFESTATION. There are at present 3 orderlies employed, one whole time at the Firs Clinic, and two part-time, one at the Firs Clinic, and the other at the Cape Clinic. There are 16 weekly sessions at the latter, and 3 at the former. These ladies have been extremely helpful in reducing the incidence of lousiness, and have given excellent advice to mothers when attending the Clinics. The attendants visit the schools with the Health Visitors, and when facilities permit, cleanse the children at the schools; otherwise they are cleansed at the Clinics. During I&45 there were 20,546 children examined in the schools for cleanliness, of whom 1,577 were found unclean. Of these, 549 were treated at the Firs Clinic with 2,221 trfeatments, and 39 at the Cape Clinic with 407 treatments. The large number of treatments per case is due in the main to re-infestation by a small number of regular offenders, who are well known to the departments officers, but who are more or fess incorrigible. The source of these infections is often the adult members of the families, but it is difficult to prove this is so, and in many cases where it is known treatment has been offered but it has been difficult to secure the necessary co-operation. Baths are also given to the children when they visit the clinics in a filthy condition. The number of children cleansed per session cannot really be estimated; the number fluctuates greatly, e.g., 80 may be cleansed one week, and 20 the next. At the Firs Clinic lethane is being used for the cleansing of the children’s heads. D.D.T. has been used, but the nurse reports that the be.st results appear to be with lethane. At the Cape Clinic Pro-Scabin is being used with excellent results. The nurse claims that th'e nits are loosened and can be combed out more easily than after treatment with lethane. Co-operation from the school teachers has been excellent, and the help they give is greatly appreciated. Many of the teachers, as soon as a verminous head is discovered, either ring up the Health Visitor, or even send or bring the child to the clinic to be treated at once. With regard to the co-operation of parents, this has been good on the whole. There have been however, several ca.ses where the mothers have strongly objected to their children being cleansed at the clinic; but after they have been dealt with they have left the clinic feeling satisfied that everything is being done in the interests of the child, and have promised to do better in the future.