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71
Report of the Medical Officer of Health. 71
cases, and the means taken to find out these were successful in
discovering cases which would not otherwise have been notified, at
least till secondary cases occurred.
Instructions were given to the teachers to exclude all cases of
sore throat from school, and one of the Sanitary Staff called at
the school each morning to get a list of absentees. These
absentees were visited and the cause of absence ascertained. If
sore throat was the cause the parents were advised to call in a
medical man, and a swab was forwarded to the medical attendant
so that a speedy diagnosis could be made.
The school was not closed for any prolonged period, but
careful watch was kept on all absentees, and any suspicious cases
at once visited.
The outbreak was practically at an end on the 17th November,
as out of the five other cases notified after that date three were
secondary.
The noticeable feature of this outbreak was that out of the 34
cases no deaths occurred, and it is certain that in all the cases the
diagnosis was correct.
The third outbreak, which occurred in Clapham, also affected
to some extent the Balham Ward, and was of especial importance,
as the majority of the cases occurred on the Hyde Farm Estate, a
locality in which Diphtheria had been prevalent to some extent
since 1899, and which had already been the subject of special
investigation. During the year 70 cases of Diphtheria occurred
among children attending Cavendish Road Board School, one in
January, four in February, one in April, three in May, six in July,
two in August, 13 in September, seven in October, 25 in November,
and eight in December.
Of the 70 cases, 28 resided in Balham, and 42 in Clapham.
In November, when the cases were most numerous, special
inquiry was made, and as 19 of these cases occurred on the Hyde
Farm Estate, attention was directed to that locality to ascertain
if there were any local conditions that favoured the spread of the
disease.