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APPENDIX
Annual Report for 1897.
In May there was an outbreak of Diphtheria among the girls
in the second standard at Harwood Road Board School, six children
living in Fulham and one living in Chelsea being notified as
suffering from Diphtheria between May 19th and May 26th, and
as these children did not live near together, and there were no
other children in any of the other classes of the school affected,
it was most probable that they were infected in the class-room
itself by some child who was suffering from a mild and unrecognised
form of the disease, and accordingly the Vestry, at their
meeting on May 26th, on my recommendation, passed a resolution
requiring the Managers " to close the room occupied by the girls'
second standard, and known as Class Room " C " for a period of
fourteen days, and to exclude from the school the girls in the
second standard, and also the children residing in the same houses
as those girls."
This was at once done, the class-room being closed from May
27th to June 9th, with satisfactory results, as excluding secondary
cases occurring in the same family, there were only two other
cases among the children attending that school, who were notified
on May 31st and June Ist respectively, but on June 7th four children
residing in a house in New Kings Road were notified as
suffering from Diphtheria, and on investigation it was ascertained
that another member of the family who was in the second
standard in the girls' department at Harwood Road School, had
been ill with a sore throat about a fortnight or three weeks before,
but the illness had been of so mild a character that no medical
practitioner had been called in. This child had probably had a
mild attack of Diphtheria, and as she was attending school up to
May 26th, when the school was closed, it is quite possible that
the outbreak in the particular class-room originated with her.