[Report 1954] / School Medical Officer of Health, Reading County Borough.

  • Reading (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1954
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1954] / School Medical Officer of Health, Reading County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    received a preliminary Mantoux and those negative to this test were given B.C.G. vaccination. Some six weeks later the Mantoux was repeated to confirm the change over to a positive reaction. The results of this small investigation are shown on page 21—the most notable feature being the large number of parents who refused this protection to their children. Such refusals are of course, only to be anticipated, the policy of “wait and see” being common to those who receive such benefits as well as to those who administer. However, it is anticipated that a growth in public approval will coincide with the progressive extension of this project and that without undue emphasis on propaganda, B.C.G. vaccination will become a routine and accepted measure. (3) Mass Radiography Service. On three occasions during 1954 it was necessary to invoke the co-operation of the Mass Radio¬ graphy Service of the Oxford Regional Hospital Board as the result of the diagnosis of an active tuberculosis case amongst the staff or pupils of Reading Schools. School A. The discovery that a member of the teaching staff was suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis created widespread con¬ cern, the close contacts being immediately screened at the Chest Clinic, while a further group of some 200 pupils and staff were examined Radiologically by the Mass Radiography Service. No suspicious findings were reported but when Mass Radiography of the whole school population was undertaken three months later, some eleven of the children, previously X-rayed, were referred to the Chest Clinic, of whom nine proved to be infected cases not previously known to the Chest Physician. The possibility that there had been a spread of the disease from the originally infected teacher must be considered likely, although the late development of lesions in the new cases is rather unusual. Because of the last mentioned factor it was considered advisable to repeat the Radiological examination in a further three months’ time and in the case of the children, to combine it with a Tuberculin Test of the Heaf Multi-puncture type. These two measures were subsequently carried out and through Radiography culled a further four cases. The tuberculin survey evinced curious and contradictory results—tuberculin conversions being higher in a group in which there was only one confirmed case than in a group in which the other 12 cases occurred. At the end of a further three months interval, Mass Radiography was repeated but no further cases were found. Altogether these investigations were responsible for the discovery of 13 new cases of tuberculosis, all probably due to case-to-case spread, stemming from the original single focus among the staff. The conclusion may be drawn that in the investigation of tuberculosis outbreaks in schools, repeated X-ray examinations are