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56
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
School the number of cases was 17. In the three weeks ending the
15th April the number of cases in the West Hill School was 13, while
the number in Merton Road School was only seven. During the
whole period 38 cases occurred in children attending West Hill and 37
among children attending Merton Road. St. Michael's School, which
is a small school compared with the other, had also an exceptional
incidence, the total number of cases during the same period being n.
The greatest prevalence of the disease occurred during the weeks
ended the 28th January, 4th and nth February when 47 cases were
notified, and during the weeks ending the 1st, 8th and 15th April, when
42 cases were notified. A large diminution took place in the number
of cases notified in the week ending the 22nd April, and a still greater
diminution in the week ending the 29th April, during the latter week
only three cases being notified.
Every precaution was taken by the teachers of the schools to
exclude children who were suffering from any slight illness, and the
cases were removed to hospital promptly and the disinfection of the
premises carried out quickly and efficiently.
One special and interesting feature in this prevalence of Scarlet
Fever was the fact that 15 of the cases in Southfield Ward and five in
the Putney Ward were due in all probability to infection by means of
milk.
The first of these cases was notified on the 31st March, followed
by one on the 3rd April, two on the 7th, six on the 8th, two on the
9th, four on the 10th, two on the nth, one on the 12th, and one on
the 18th.
Inquiry into the date of the first symptoms of these cases elicited
the fact that all the patients sickened from the 31st March to the 8th
April, and in all, with one exception, the first symptons appeared
between the 4th and the 8th April.
My attention was directed to the milk supply as being the presumable
cause of infection on the 9th April when a case was notified,
the father of the patient being employed as a distributor of milk by a
firm in the locality. This man was employed not only as a distributor