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44
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
In both of these outbreaks I made personal investigation into
their origin, and I was satisfied that both outbreaks were caused
by return cases. In Diphtheria it is especially difficult to say in
some cases when the infection has completely disappeared, and
in the cases which were the causes of these outbreaks I was
informed by the officials of the Metropolitan Asylums Board that
cultivations had been made from the throats of the suspected
patients before dismissal and the bacillus had not been found.
In the outbreak in Streatham three cases occurred, with no
deaths, and in Tooting eight cases, with no deaths.
The cases were thus of a very mild type, and the outbreak
in Tooting, which might have proved serious, was, owing to the
prompt removal for the second time of the returned case, checked.
The details of the outbreak in Salvador, Tooting, are as
follows:—
On the 7th August notifications were received that J. D.
and C. D., of Salvador Row, were suffering from Diphtheria,
and on the 8th August another notification was received of a
case in another house in the same Row.
On the 17th another case was notified, and three on
the 19th.
On the 19th, as I was away on my holidays, my deputy
visited Salvador Row and examined several children there.
One child, C. F., had a nasal discharge, and a swab was taken
from the throat of this child and sent to Jenner Institute.
On the 20th I visited Salvador and saw the child. As the
report from the Jenner Institute had not then been received
I ordered the child to be isolated from the other children
in the locality. On the morning of the 21st August information
was received that the Bacillus Diphtheriae had been
isolated, and the child was removed that afternoon to hospital.
This child, aged 4 years, had when 15 months old,
according to the mother's statement, suffered from Diphtheria
and had been treated for such in the Fountain Fever Hospital.