[Report 1959] / School Medical Officer of Health, Wiltshire County Council.

  • Wiltshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1959
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1959] / School Medical Officer of Health, Wiltshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    SPECIAL EXAMINATIONS Defect or Disease (1) Special Examinations Pupils requiring treatment (2) Pupils requiring observation (3) Skin . 2 2 Eyes (a) Vision 19 8 /b) Squint 6 — (c) Other 3 — P^ars (a) Hearing 12 11 (b) Otitis Media 6 8 (c) Other — — Nose and Throat 12 4 Speech 5 9 Lymphatic Glands 3 12 Heart 1 1 Lungs 6 3 Developmental (a) Hernia — — (b) Other 6 4 Orthopaedic (a) Posture . 1 1 (b) Feet 3 2 (c) Other 3 2 Nervous System (a) Epilepsy — — (b) Other ... — 1 Psychological (a) Development 4 6 (b) Stability 3 4 Abdomen — 2 Other 3 4 CLEANLINESS The school nurses visit all primary and secondary modern schools once a term to examine the children and to give general advice on matters of personal hygiene and health. Any children whose hair is found to be infested or whose state of cleanliness is otherwise unsatisfactory or who have been found to have infectious skin conditions, are visited at home and are also seen again later at school when children who were absent when the nurses visited earlier in the term are also examined. The total number of examinations made was 112,557, some 1,500 fewer than in 1958. Unfortunately, there were some schools each term which could not be visited because of shortage of nursing staff or sickness. The number of children found to have nits or lice in their hair was 226 compared with 233 in 1958 but, except in the cases of 27 children for whom cleansing notices were issued, exclusion from school to avoid others becoming infested was unnecessary. The children found to be infested were 0.5 per cent of the primary and secondary modern school population, the same proportion as in 1958. Comparative figures over a period of ten years are given in the following table. 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1958 1959 Children found to be infested 1,137 944 805 822 831 366 252 233 226 Percentage of school population 3.1 2.2 1.9 1.9 1.9 0.8 0.7 0.5 0.5 Cleansing notices issued ... 142 217 172 J 93 146 91 51 30 26