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27
SCHOOL BOARD FOR LONDON.
Victoria Embankment, W.C.
21st December, 1897.
Sir,
In reply to your letter of the 20th inst., I have to state that the instruction
in the Board's Code which you quote in your letter, applies to all infectious
diseases. It will interest you to know that the Board have, this week, in their
Official "Gazette " issued the following notice to their teachers :
"The Board desire to call the attention of Teachers generally, and
of the Plumstead Teachers in particular, to the requirement that all
cases of exclusion on account of infection, either in the children themselves
or in the home or tenement from which they come, shall be
notified to the Local Medical Officer of Health, and to state that this
instruction applies to all infectious ailments and not only those which
are notifiable under the Public Health (London) Act."
In reply to your further enquiry, I am to say that it is the intention of the
Board that the teachers shall notify measles and Whooping-Cough to the
Medical Officer of Health."
It follows from this letter that if the Board desire the cooperation
of the Medical Officer of Health in preventing the spread
of the non-notifiable infectious diseases amongst their scholars, it is
their duty to see that their instruction as to notifying the same is
carried out. I have no doubt if this were done, the local authorities
would do their part in giving their Medical Officers of Health the
means to secure isolation of infected pupils and the disinfection of
their homes.
Class II.
Constitutional Diseases. Under this head 654 deaths were
recorded which gives a death-rate of 3.0 per 1,000 living persons.
The diseases which furnished the largest number of deaths were
Cancer and Phthisis, the former being responsible for 164 and the
latter 265.
Class III.
Developmental. The deaths in this class numbered 300 which
is equivalent to a death rate of 1.3 per 1,000.