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LABORATORY SERVICES
The Laboratory Services are directed by the Medical Research Council
on behalf of the Ministry of Health. Pathological specimens are sent for
examination to the Central Public Health Laboratory at Colindale and
the Branch Laboratory at Coppetts Wood Hospital, Hornsey. The Public
Health Department is a collection centre for specimens submitted by
general practitioners and local authorities and supplies of containers are
obtainable between 9.0 a.m. and 5.15 p.m. (9 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. on
Saturdays).
Specimens received in the Public Health Department office are collected
on Monday to Friday at 2 p.m. and at 10 a.m. on Saturday by a messenger
from the Laboratory Service. Specimens may also be sent direct to the
Hornsey Laboratory before 5 p.m. Monday to Friday and 12 noon on
Saturdays.
The Central Public Health Laboratory maintains a twenty-four-hour
emergency service.
The assistance of the technical staff attached to the laboratories is also
available in connection with outbreaks of infectious diseases at day
nurseries and schools and this assistance is extremely valuable in controlling
the spread of infection.
OUTBREAK OF DYSENTERY IN A HORNSEY SCHOOL
On the 26th November, 1951, the health department was notified of an
unusually large number of pupils absent from a school in the district and
alleged to be suffering from "gastric influenza". In all, some ninety pupils
were away that day (the average number of absentees at this time of the
year was said to be thirty). One child was admitted to hospital and confirmed
to be suffering from dysentery. The assistance of the Public Health
Laboratory Service, Colindale, was immediately sought and the school
meals service, under the supervision of Dr. Betty Hobbs, exhaustively
investigated. The homes of all pupils living in the district, and absent
from school, were visited for the purpose of obtaining first-hand clinical
histories; and arrangements made for the collection of stool specimens.
All medical officers of health in adjacent districts, where pupils were
known to live, were notified of the outbreak and the nature of the investigations
being carried out. Specimens from the school teaching and school
feeding staffs were also arranged.
On the 28th November an additional forty absentees among pupils
was reported and one member of the teaching staff.
On the 29th November the absentee list had reached 217 pupils out of
a total of 426 on the roll and five members of the teaching staff, but none
of the domestic or school feeding staff had been absent. School meals
were suspended and later that day school closure was recommended.
By this time sonne dysentery had been identified in specimens submitted
from sick pupils. Altogether thirty-nine positive cases occurred.
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