[Report 1927] / School Medical Officer of Health, Leigh Borough.

  • Leigh (Lancashire, England). Borough Council.
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1927] / School Medical Officer of Health, Leigh Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The services of the Tuberculosis Officer are used to decide the question of infectivity and school attendance. All children of school age notified to the M.O.H. as suffering from Tuberculosis are brought under the notice of the School Medical Department. (d) Skin Diseases. Treatment is received from— « (1) Minor Ailment Clinics. (2) Artificial Light Clinic. (3) Private Practitioners. (4) Manchester Skin Hospital. (5) Tuberculosis Dispensary. By far the most satisfactory means are the Clinics ; cure is ensured much earlier, and school absence is avoided in suitable cases. Ringworm and Impetigo are the most common infectious skin diseases, and produce the greatest interruptions in school attendance. X-Ray treatment is not yet available for Ringworm, and there is no cleansing station for Scabies and other forms of uncleanliness. The heads of children infected with lice are cleansed by the Nurses at the Clinics after failure to comply with the notice served under Section 87 of the Education Act, 1921, or by parents under the super¬ vision of the Nurse. The Inspector of the N.S.P.C.C. is very useful in dealing with careless and defiant parents. More ample provision of cloak-room accommodation in the Schools, with numbered hat and coat pegs allotted to the individual child, would, I am satisfied, diminish the spread of these infectious skin diseases and vermin. Strict supervision of the use of the cloak-room is also necessary. (e) External Eye Diseases. These conditions receive treatment through one or other of the following :—