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There has been no closure of school or department during the year on
account of infectious illnesses: individual sufferers from the notifiable forms
of infectious disease, scarlet fever and diphtheria, are removed to the Isolation
Hospital, and are seen by me before returning to schools: contacts of these
are excluded one week, and in the case of diphtheria have the throat and, if
necessary, the nose swabbed.
Sufferers from the non-notifiable infectious illnesses and their contacts
are excluded in accordance with the Memorandum of 1927.
When measles is prevalent, the school nurses visit cases notified by the
Head Teacher or the Attendance Department, provided the notice is early
enough ; that is within a few days of the onset of symptoms.
HEALTH EDUCATION.
Health and Baby Week was held in the last week in October, when health
films were shown and popular talks on health subjects were given.
Leaflets on health subjects—measles, whooping cough, teeth, summer
diarrhoea, etc.—have been distributed among the mothers attending the
Child Welfare Centres at appropriate seasons.
INSECT PLAGUES.
An unusual plague of flying beetles appeared in one part of the district
in the early part of the month of May.
The locality affected was mostly Cheddington Road, but Eileen Terrace
and Hazelbury Road also suffered.
The beetles (Harpalus Ruficorius) were noctural in their habit, and
swarmed in myriads against the backs of the houses in the above-mentioned
roads, evidently coming from agricultural ground in the immediate neighbourhood.
The Ministry of Agriculture willingly gave us all the assistance that lay
in their power, but the trouble lasted almost two months.
The backs of the houses and the strip of land adjoining the premises were
sprayed daily with a mixture of paraffin oil, creosote, lysol, etc., but this measure
only killed those which had crept into crannies in the wall and other suitable
crevices.
A quarter of a ton of naphthalene was spread over the adjoining agricultural
land, the farmer assisting by having this hoed into the ground between the rows
of potatoes—which formed the crop.
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