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There are a number of visitors to the creche, including seven
voluntary workers, one of whom attends every morning at the
babies' nursery. In the toddlers' room there is a different voluntary
worker each day of the week.
The casual visitors include the Pastor of the Mission, the Rev.
F. W. Newland, Mrs. Newland, the Medical Officer, two typists
at the mission, three sisters attached to the mission, and other
occasional callers.
The records kept at the nursery are a rough notebook for
entering names and addresses of parents on first attending the
nursery. Should the child stay a week, a card is made out giving
the following particulars Date of admission, occupation of father,
address of mother's employer, reasons for admission, feeding before
admission, vaccination, past illnesses, abnormalities, present condition,
and medical officer's notes. Overleaf are spaces for entering
dates and the appropriate weights of the child.
The routine adopted with a newcomer is for the mother to be
interviewed by the Matron, and the employer's address taken. No
enquiries appear to be made regarding contact with cases of infectious
disease. There is no detailed medical examination, and
no certificate of freedom from disease is required. The children
are taken into the reception room, stripped, bathed, and dressed
in creche clothes. Their own clothes are put into the disinfecting
cupboard and disinfected twice a week, but not on arrival as a
newcomer, unless the disinfecting cupboard is working on that
date.
The Medical Officer visits once a week. He has no definite
time or day specified for his visits. His visit consists of a round
of the babies' nursery, and usually the toddlers' room. The detailed
minute medical examination of the children and attendant records
are not apparently a routine measure. Children are examined at
the request of the Matron.
Prior to May, 1927, there have been no known cases of diphtheria
at the nursery for at least four years; no record of any
case prior to that has been found. The outbreak under consideration
commenced on the 11th May, 1927. At the date of this