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10
A third round of swabbing was undertaken at the school on Monday,
the 24th July, with negative results and the London County Council
decided to postpone a fourth comprehensive swabbing until the school
resumed after the summer vacation.
No absentees were allowed back to school unless cleared by this Public
Health Department but before issuing clearance certificates we had to be
satisfied that two consecutive Nose and Throat swabs had been found
negative, and that the child had had a recent primary or "booster" dose
of Diphtheria Antigen.
Special mention must be made of the parent who was found, on swabbing,
to have Diphtheroid-like organism in her nose. It was reported as
Non-toxigenic C. Diphtheriae Mitis and after consultation with the
Bacteriologist at the Hither Green Hospital (Dr. Whelan) exhaustive
virulence tests were applied to the culture. These confirmed the nonvirulence
of the organism. Nasal swabbing was repeated three days later
and the lady was referred to her own doctor for treatment with appropriate
nasal antiseptic drops. This second nasal swabbing revealed the same
organism which was subjected to the same rigorous virulence tests with
negative results and we deemed it safe to allow her to remain at home.
Nevertheless, she was given advice regarding elementary principles of
hygiene and the case was visited regularly until the minor infection had
cleared up.
It was decided to disinfect the Infants' School and this was carried out
by Formaldehyde spraying. Disinfection of houses and effects was available
if required.
We asked the Brook Hospital to advise us when the carriers were fit
to be discharged in order that they could be kept under further surveillance
for about another month. In these cases Nose and Throat swabs were
taken at intervals of about one week until we obtained three consecutive
negatives.
As a result of the swabbing of the carriers after discharge from hospital,
two subsequently gave positive swabs, and following school swabbing
after the holidays, three further children were found to be positive. Three
of these children were removed to hospital for treatment (one for the
second time) and the other two were isolated at home and treated by their
own doctors in consultation with the medical authorities at the Brook
Hospital. All were eventually cleared and returned to school.
I should like to stress the ready co-operation that I received from
parents and the national and local press. Apart from a few inadvertent
errors in reporting, I am satisfied that the press co-operated with us
admirably and helped to create a climate of justifiable anxiety amongst
responsible parents which made them all the more ready to accept and to
seek protection for their children.
It is also necessary in this report to acknowledge the magnificent help
which we received from the Public Health Laboratory at Hither Green
Hospital, S.E.13. They were receiving swabs at all hours and in large
numbers and provisional results were always available within 18-24 hours
and confirmed later. This service helped greatly in co-ordinating and
planning the daily routine.