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addition to the usual intimation on Form 84, and all cases of suspicious
illness were reported without delay by School Medical Inspectors and
School Nurses. All these cases were kept under observation by the Public
Health Department. This procedure led to the discovery of 9 cases of
Smallpox. The number of visits paid by the Sanitary Inspectors to school
absentees was 593.
(c) Notification of Chickenpox.—Early in the outbreak it was deemed
advisable to make Chickenpox notifiable as it was found that cases of
Chickenpox and cases of Smallpox were occurring in the same neighbourhood.
The Council made an Order applying Section 55 of the Public
Health (London) Act, 1891, to Chickenpox for a period of three months,
and the Order was approved by the Minister of Health. Subsequently an
Order to cover a period of another nine months was made by the Council
and duly approved by the Minister. The first of these Orders came into
operation on 5th May, 1928, and from that date to the end of the year
544 cases of Chickenpox were reported:—
453 by medical practitioners;
63 by the school authority;
24 by parents;
4 by sanitary inspectors.
As the first case of the outbreak of Smallpox had been mistaken for
Chickenpox all cases notified as Chickenpox were visited by a member of
the medical staff. This procedure resulted in the discovery of n cases
of Smallpox.
The following table shows the visits paid by the medical staff to cases
• of doubtful Smallpox, Chickenpox, and Smallpox contacts. Several of
these visits represent visits paid to workplaces in order to examine contacts
of cases who had been at work in an infectious condition:—