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39
The child was said to have had bad diarrhoea for
several days before admission, accompanied by a cough.
On admission the eyes were sunken, the child pale and
flabby, the stools frequent and green; the temperature
was 103°. During the first few days in the Hospital
the cough became very violent causing much distress
and there was a patch of consolidated lung. Eventually
convulsions supervened, the temperature rose still
higher and the child died.
On analysing these cases further, one found that in
17 cases the child was admitted to the Hospital
obviously suffering from diarrhoea, whereas in four
other cases the child appeared to have contracted the
diarrhoea in the Hospital itself. All practicable
steps were taken by the Hospital medical and nursing
staff to obviate the possibility of passing the infection
from one child to another, but as the outbreak occurred
in the middle of winter, when the children's wards
in the Hospital are always fully occupied, it was almost
inevitable that a certain amount of infection should be
transmitted from one case to another. Early in
January, however, it was possible to clear one of the
wards and this was used as an isolation ward for these
cases. Any cases which could not be accommodated
in this ward were nursed at one end of the children's
ward and special instructions were given to the
nurses as to bed isolation. Special inquiries were
made by the Health Visitors as to the possible
source of infection in the homes. In the first place,
the geographical position of the cases was studied, but
it was found that with the exception of three cases in
Heckfield Place and two in the adjoining Avenues,
all the others appeared to be fairly evenly distributed
about the borough. No particular method of feeding
Could be blamed, as breast feeding, dried milk, fresh
cow's milk, condensed milk and in the older children,
even a mixed diet, were found to be in use in different
cases. The only cause to which one could attribute
such an unusual outbreak, would appear to be the
prolonged period of wet and sunless weather, which
prevailed during July, August and September, 1924.