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113
I append an extract from the last Annual Report of the Chief
Medical Officer:—
"Owing to its great infectivity and its fatality to infants in the
first months of their existence, every care should be taken in
children's wards to see that the normal routine of nursing
and feeding of the children is above reproach. Among
obvious precautions are : that the wards shall contain only
small numbers of children, that nurses shall wear gowns and
wash their hands after attending one patient and before going
to the next, that no nurse shall both feed and change an infant
and that everything coming into contact with a patient shall
be kept separate from other patients. The only certain way
of avoiding the spread of dysentery is, as has been indicated,
to prevent its entry into the ward. No child with diarrhoea
should be admitted direct into a general ward, but should be
placed in an observation ward until it is clear that the child
is not suffering from dysentery. The faeces should be
examined for specific bacteria if there is blood or mucus in
the stools, but it must be remembered that bacteriological
diagnosis is not always easy, especially in cases which have
been ill for some days. It is better, therefore, to err on the
side of caution and, if the patient appears clinically to be
suffering from dysentery, to keep the patient isolated from
other children, even though confirmatory bacteriological
evidence of the diagnosis is lacking."
Enteric Fever.
Five cases of enteric fever were notified during the year, none
of which proved fatal. In three of the cases the bacillus typhosis
was isolated, and in the remaining two, bacillus paratyphosis B.
Investigation as to the possible source of origin was made in all
cases, but apart from one case, in which the infection was contracted
in Germany, no great satisfaction was obtained.
Four of the cases occurred in adults, whilst the fifth occurred in
a girl of two-and-a-half years.
Malaria.
Two cases of malaria were notified during 1935. They were both
of the sub-tertian type, and occurred in males aged 26 years and 30
years. In both instances the infection had been contracted abroad,