View report page

41
the Resident Medical Officer, brought the child home through the
streets, and then took the patient to a practitioner in the district,
who having his doubt about the complaint, sent a swabbing from the
throat on to the Board's Offices for examination : no bacilli were
found.
"This is an instance of a case being notified by one practitioner
as diphtheria, which, upon having ' swabbings' taken by another
medical man, showed no germs of the disease, and clearly proves, as
mentioned in the report of the 26th January, that a naked eye
examination in doubtful cases is of no avail.
"In one case a boy had a sore throat; he was comparatively well,
but the medical attendant thought it advisable to have a 'swabbing'
from the throat examined. The result shewed the bacillus diphtheriae
present; the patient was thereupon removed to Homerton Fever
Hospital. This is an instance of diphtheria causing only slight
catarrhal symptoms, the disease not being notified, and the patient
no doubt feeling apparently well in a day or two would be sent back
to school, and thereby possibly causing an outbreak of diphtheria.
In a case like the above post-diphtheritic paralysis may follow. It
will be remembered when diphtheria was prevalent, with a high
mortality, on the Isle of Dogs, at the end of the year 1897, children
were found attending the Wharf Road Board School suffering from
complaints following diphtheria, and they had never been notified as
having the complaint.
"One practitioner who had had the circular letter, &c., sent to him,
and who was notifying diphtheria cases, was again written to calling
his attention to the facilities offered by the Board in order to arrive
at correct diagnoses, but up to the present he has not asked for a
diagnosis outfit.
"It was necessary, after forwarding the boxes, to send a circular
letter to practitioners informing them that the diagnosis outfits were
only to be used for cases in the Poplar district; one medical man