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43
The original case was diagnosed clinically by a local general practitioner,
in a boy of six years who had been immunised in infancy but not since.
Upon notification of this case the London County Council arranged for the
swabbing of the school contacts whilst the Borough Council staff investigated
family contacts.
As a result of these investigations ten positive swabs were obtained. This
Was followed by investigation of the families of these earners when a further
ten positive swabs were obtained although not all at the first attempt.
All of these except one adult were admitted to hospital and two of them,
Cases 2 and 3, were considered on admission to be clinically diphtheria.
The family of Case 2 consisted of mother and father and seven children.
The family was originally investigated as a result of finding a positive swab in
a contact of Case 1. The first swab results of the family taken on the day of
removal of the carrier were negative.
A week later swabbing of the family gave five positive results and the
Allowing day another member of the family returned a positive.
Thus in this family of nine there were two cases and five carriers including
father. The negative swabs were from the mother and a boy aged 7. The
immunisation state of the parents was not discovered.
The two cases in the family were not immunised. The remainder of the
family were immunised in infancy and had boosters in 1956 with the exception
of the boy aged 12 who had his booster in 1952.
Another family with a school contact of Case 1 returned four positive
swabs including the mother. Three members of the family returned negative
swabs. The whole of this family with the exception of the parents gave ahistory
immunisation.
No other families had more than one carrier.
The following table gives brief details of the cases:-