[Report 1957] / School Medical Officer of Health, Newport (Gwent) County Borough.

  • Newport (Wales). County Borough Council.
Date:
1957
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1957] / School Medical Officer of Health, Newport (Gwent) County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/40 (page 12)
    TUBERCULIN TESTING Tuberculin testing was offered during the year to all children reaching their sixth and tenth birthdays during the school year and it is interesting to compare the figures with those for the previous year. TB- % TB + % Total 1956: Children reaching 6th birthday .. . 781 96.4 29 3.6 810 1957: Children reaching 6th birthday .. 910 96.6 32 3.4 942 Total . 1,691 96.5 61 3.5 1,752 1956: Children reaching 10th birthday .. . 1,073 88.8 135 11.2 1,208 1957: Children reaching 10th birthday .. . 1,285 90.5 135 9.5 1,420 Total . 2,358 89.7 270 10.3 2,628 This programme was implemented in 1956. It will be seen that there has been a rise from 810 to 942 among six year olds and 1,208 to 1,420 among ten year olds during the two years in which the programme has been carried out, indicating that the procedure is being accepted by the parents. It will be seen also that there has been a fall in the number of children found to be tuberculin positive from 3.6% to 3.4% among six year olds and 11.2% to 9.5% among ten year olds during the same period, indicating a fall in the sources of tuberculous infection. The tuberculin positive children were given a chest X-ray. No cases of tuberculosis were found in either age group. Tuberculin testing is a much cheaper and more efficient way of finding cases of tuberculosis than mass X-ray, as it makes it unnecessary to X-ray any but the tuberculin positive cases. DIPHTHERIA IMMUNISATION 452 school children were given reinforcing immunisation against diphtheria during the year and 105 primary immunisation. POLIOMYELITIS IMMUNISATION 4.216 school children were given immunisation against poliomyelitis during the year.