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Workhouse or to the Tooting Home, etc. This allowed of other
Wards in " B " and "C " Blocks being made available for children.
The milk supply to the Infirmary was tested, and found to be
free from evidence of infection.
Disinfection was carried out by the Borough Council, all
suspected clothing, bedding, etc., being disinfected at the Council's
Disinfecting Station. This work took up a large amount of the
time of the Council's Disinfectors.
The drains of the Infirmary were tested, and found to be defective
Notice was served, by order of the Health Committee, on
the Guardians to remedy the nuisance, which, after protracted
negotiation, was at last complied with.
Bacteriological Examinations.
The special feature in connection with this outbreak
was the use made of bacteriological methods in connection
with the stamping out of the disease. The total number
of examinations made reached the large figure of 1,238,
and it was only by the systematic use of this aid to
preventive medicine that, having regard to the conditions
prevailing at the Infirmary, to which attention has been already
drawn (and which reflect anything but credit upon those responsible),
that the disease was so effectively and so quickly stamped
out. This is shown in the great decline in the number of cases
notified after the end of March. The results unmistakeably point
to the absolutely vital necessity of the method of dealing with
Diphtheria outbreaks in public institutions, schools and other
places where large numbers of susceptible persons are aggregated.
The costly nature of these examinations, when conducted on the
scale that an outbreak of this character demands, should induce
the Council to consider the advisability of establishing their own
bacteriological Laboratory, where examinations could be made at
a minimum cost and minimum loss of time.
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