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14
Employment.—No cases have been brought to the notice
of the School Medical Officer of injury to the health of children
from over-employment. There is a Juvenile Labour Bureau in
the Borough, and the Choice of Employment Act is in force.
ACTION TAKEN TO DETECT AND PREVENT THE
SPREAD OF INFECTION IN SCHOOLS.
By visits to the schools and by class-to-class inspections of
the children it is often possible to discover cases of infectious
disease. For example,'during the year cases of diphtheria, scarlet
fever, mumps, ringworm, scabies and impetigo have been discovered
in this manner. At the routine inspections also some
cases of infectious disease are discovered. It is a rule that whenever
a child is found in or out of school and complaining of a sore
throat that a swab is taken, and several early cases of diphtheria
have been discovered in this way. At one of the schools it
seemed likely that diphtheria was becoming epidemic during the
autumn, and a large number of swabs were taken from the
children attending that school. Two of these were found to
contain the germs of diphtheria, and on the exclusion of these
children from school there was a complete cessation of the oases
of diphtheria. The teachers have been instrumental in bringing
to the notice of the School Medical Service many cases of infective
disease; if a teacher considers that a child is in or away from
school and may be suffering from any infectious condition a notification
of this is sent to the School Medical Officer or the child
is sent for examination to the Clinic. It would be ideal to have
sufficient nursing staff properly to follow up all these cases daily
to their homes; but at present this is not practicable.
The contacts of diphtheria and scarlet fever are excluded
from school, and in addition the contacts of a case of diphtheria
are swabbed. A notice is sent to the infected house saying that
no child in that house may attend school, and the teacher concerned
is also informed of this. When it appears that contacts
may safely return to school another notice is sent giving the
necessary permission. On the backs of these notices short
descriptions are printed giving the signs and symptoms of the