[Report 1944] / School Medical Officer of Health, Exeter.

  • Exeter (England). City Council.
Date:
1944
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1944] / School Medical Officer of Health, Exeter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/52 (page 18)
    STEPS TAKEN TO COMBAT INFESTATION. Ministry of Health Circular 49/45, Paragraph 2. As the Health Visitors are also School Nurses, the control of dirty heads is simplified. As a general rule, parents carry out necessary cleansing themselves, with such advice as the nurse thinks necessary, but in recalcitrant and difficult cases cleansing is carried out at the Public Health Committee’s cleansing station. Before the war, the number of school children found to have dirty heads averaged about 10 per cent., and the number of pre-school children found to be unsatisfactory was very much less. The figure for elementary school children for 1944 was 16.2 per cent., being an improvement on the previous two years. An accurate figure for pre-school children cannot be given, but there is no doubt that they do receive more attention from parents than their older brothers and sisters. Dirty heads at the nurseries are not very common, and, in any case, the cleanliness of entrants is open to control. In the matter of scabies, 229 families comprising 538 cases were dealt with. Three adult males made use of the Cleansing Station. It is observed that the Scabies Order, 1941, applies to other verminous conditions. Although it has not been necessary to resort to legal action, the power has proved a useful one, par- ticularly in securing examination of adult members of families. • DAIRIES, COWSHEDS AND MILKSHOPS. There are on the register 73 Dairies, Milkshops and Milk- stores (where cattle are not kept) for the sale of milk by retail. This is the same as last year. For the production of milk for wholesale and/or retail there are 41 Dairies where cattle are kept. The Rationalisation of Milk Deliveries Scheme which, as a war-time measure came into operation on 28th March, 1943, is now operating fairly satisfactorily. There are 2 collecting stations and 39 retail producers functioning in the City, and of the latter 17 occupy farms situated in the County. The 2 collecting stations receive milk from approximately 217 dairy farms, and in addition one of them receives a considerable quantity from another station situated in the County.