[Report 1945] / Medical Officer of Health, Canterbury Borough / City & County.

  • Canterbury (England). City & County Council.
Date:
1945
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1945] / Medical Officer of Health, Canterbury Borough / City & County. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/46 (page 11)
    Illegitimate Children. There were g illegitimate births registered in the City, and 1 other transferable to Canterbury was born outside the City. The Health Visitor continues to supervise these cases with great care. Every effort is made to establish contact as soon as possible in the pregnancy. The mother is encouraged to attend the ante-natal clinic and the infa^nt welfare clinic after the baby’s birth. Arrangements have also been made with the Diocesan Council for Moral Welfare for the use of their affiliated homes for suitable cases. Uncleanliness. Routine inspection of the heads at schools by the School Nurses brought to light 141 cases of infestation with lice or nits. This figure includes several children who were apparently reinfected after cleansing, each infection being treated as one case. In all these cases it was found or suspected that adult females in the family were also infected. It is noted in the annual report of the School Medical Officer that the position in regard to uncleanliness remains unsatisfactory. A considerable number of these infections and reinfections occur in “ problem families ” who are notoriously immune to ordinary methods of persuasion and education. This immunity is no doubt due to the fact that the majority of these families are below average in intelligence. Scabies. Here again it must be regretfully reported that there is little improvement. Several cases of reinfection occurred during the year. As was pointed out in last year’s report, the itch-mite is present on the skin of its host for 3 to 4 weeks before the rash appears and the itching starts. It is therefore essential that everyone in the household be treated at the same time if the disease is to be checked. It is quite useless to treat the one case with a rash and do nothing about the household contacts. Fifty-five cases were treated last year. The first case in a family was usually found in school. Cleansing material and instruction is provided free in all cases, and where home con- ditions are suitable the treatment is carried out at home. I would remind the Committee here that the majority of low rental houses, excluding Council houses, have no bathrooms nor are there any public slipper-baths. Furthermore, the facilities provided by the Education Committee are inadequate and unsatisfactory. A scheme for the provision of slipper-baths of a tem])orary nature was considered by the Committee and was reluctantly