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37
During the past year the active measures adopted to combat
this disease have been continued, and if possible somewhat
strengthened. Since the beginning of the year, after conferring
with the Medical Staff of the London County Council, it was
arranged that in connection both with Diphtheria and Scarlet
Fever no children who had been absent from School either
as patients or as contacts in connection with these two diseases
should be re-admitted until such time as the School authority
received a certificate from this department stating that in our
opinion the child or children might resume school attendance
without fear of spreading the infection. The system generally
adopted to carry this into effect is as follows :—on the receipt of
notification of a case, the premises are visited and if desired the
patient's removal to hospital is arranged ; thereupon the premises
are disinfected and all other children excluded from school
attendance in the usual way. A further visit is paid in about 10
days, and should no other case have arisen in this family a certificate
is then issued both to the school, to the parents of the
child, and to the Medical Officer of Education, stating that such
children may now resume school attendance. Although
this system entails a considerable amount of extra work on
this department in the way of additional visits and re-visits,
yet I believe it has been instrumental in checking the spread
of these diseases, because we have occasionally been able
to stop suspicious children from resuming school attendance at
too early a date. Several of the Head teachers of the Schools in
this district also have expressed their thanks and gratitude to me
for this assistance, as it materially assists them in efficiently
carrying out their work.
The following unfortunate occurrence shows, first the