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35
" 'That the Education Committee be authorised to refuse, during
the presence of diphtheria in any district, readmission to school of
children excluded on account of diphtheria or sore throat until such
children shall have obtained a medical certificate of freedom from
infection, based on a bacteriological examination.' "
In this disease school children are capable of carrying the germ
upon their throats, although they are not suffering from the disease.
Such children are known as "carrier" cases; and it is certain that
the infection may be dislodged from their throats in speaking or
singing, and susceptible children may take in the infection and suffer
from the disease. During the year I have had several children
notified to me who were acting as "carriers," but who showed no
clinical symptoms whatever of the disease. In my opinion, such
children cannot fairly be described as "suffering" from the disease;
and such notifications, while not in any way affecting the death-rate
from the disease, must destroy in a measure the value and significance
of infectious-sickness rates. Yet there are good reasons why such
children should be notified, for they are potentially infectious, and
the effect of notification under the Act enables the Sanitary Authority
to demand precautions which, if no penalty were enforceable against
neglect, would certainly not be carried out with reference to children
who are in normal health.