[Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, Jersey.

  • Jersey (Channel Islands). Council.
Date:
1966
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, Jersey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/76 (page 9)
    School Medical Service. The health of the schoolchildren of Jersey is probably better than ever before, but there is still room for improvement in some fields, notably in dental health and in obesity. The persistence in the high rate of dental caries is due to the regular consumption of sugary sweets and the like. Efforts to change the traditional “ tuck-shop ” diet beloved of the school child are not likely to be successful in these affluent days of liberal pocket money. Fluoridation of the public water supply offers the best and easiest chance of success and if this measure is adopted a reduction of 60% in the dental caries of children can be confidently expected. The school doctor has, over the past years, reported a growing number of overweight children in the schools. This problem, like that of dental caries, is associated with the affluence which allows children to eat persistently between meals. In his report for 1966 the school doctor questions whether the time has not yet come to take another look at the present custom whereby every school child, whether he or she needs it or not, is given one-third of a pint of milk each day. Another rather disquieting feature which is creeping into school medical work is the large increase in the number of refusals by parents to allow their 13-year old children to receive, where necessary, B.C.G. vaccination, which will protect them against tuberculosis. In 1965, when the testing of 13-year olds was first started, 11 % of parents refused, but in 1966 this had risen to 17%. Refusals by parents of the various immunisations offered to the younger child at school entry are very few and it is obvious that the parents themselves favour these measures. The change of attitude when the child is 13 makes one suspect that in many cases at this age the child is old enough to sway the parental decision and to encourage refusal. Tuberculosis. The local incidence of tuberculosis in 1966 was 31.75 per 100,000 population, which is slightly higher than the all-time low incidence of the previous year, 1965. This must not be taken to mean that tuberculosis is again on the increase in Jersey and the most likely explanation is that the increase is a chance statistical fluctuation which can be expected in any community providing such a small numerical sample. When we increase the sample by taking 4-year averages we find that the incidence of tuberculosis in this Island is still declining. Nevertheless, we should not let this happy picture obscure the fact that we still have living amongst us in Jersey a number of persons, usually over the age of 40, who suffer from active tuberculosis and who are capable of disseminating the disease, by infecting other members of the community by such unthinking actions as unguarded coughing and indiscriminate spitting. The latter habit is still all too common and one sees every day persons deliberately spitting in the streets and other public places. There is little hope that tuberculosis can be completely eradicated from this Island until this dangerous pool of infection is eliminated either through the natural process of the infected persons dying off or, preferably, by the public health action of finding the infected persons and treating them in order to render them non-infectious. Cervical Cytology. During the year plans were finalised to open, early in 1967, a bi-weekly Cervical Cytology Clinic at the Maternity Hospital, where tests can be carried out to detect pre-cancerous conditions of the neck of the womb. The early publicity given to this has already resulted in over 600 applications for the test.