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64
of the time of the Council's officers in following up suspected cases
of illness which are reported to the Health Department from the
Public Elementary Schools and other sources.
The influence of the schools as a means by which Scarlet
Fever and other infectious diseases are spread, is, so far as the
incidence of the disease in Battersea is concerned, considerable.
With regard to Scarlet Fever, how far this influence is to be considered
a factor in its spread, it is difficult, of course, to say.
The fact that during the year 1908, for example, that, out of the
1,099 cases notified, 714 of the children attacked were of the
school age (5-15 years) points to the school as a channel for the
dissemination of the disease. The effect of environment in this
respect affords additional evidence that schools do play a not
inconsiderable part. Invariably, as is to be expected, the incidence
of infectious disease is greatest in the poorer quarters of the
Borough. In such cases it is, for obvious reasons, not an easy
matter to measure to what extent the schools directly play their
part in the spread of infection. As has happened frequently during
the past three years, local outbreaks have occurred in the more
prosperous region of the Borough, and here it has been possible
to gauge with some degree of accuracy the influence the schools
exercise in connection with such local outbreaks, and where the
conditions which render it so difficult to avoid fallacies are to a
large extent absent.
During 1908, owing to the prevalence of Scarlet Fever
amongst children attending particular schools, it was found necessary
to take action in regard to these schools. The schools in
question were:—
1. Wix's Lane (girls).
2. Battersea Park Road (infants).
3. Surrey Lane (girls).
4 Mantua Street (junior mixed).
5. Tennyson Street ( do. ).
6. Plough Road (girls).