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76
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
of that institution to examine all the children and swab any
that he thought suspicious. This was done on the 16th, with
the result that another case was discovered. The Medical
Officer of the other institution communicated with me in the
matter as he was of opinion that some of the girls in his
institution had sore throat, and I advised him to at once
swab the throats of all the children and nurses. This was
done on the 17th, and on the 18th I received information from
the Lister Institute that out of 29 swabs taken, 15 gave a
positive result, four were negative, and in 10 the Hoffman's
bacillus was present. I visited the institution on the 19th,
along with the Medical Officer and I advised him to isolate
the 15 cases in the institution and to keep them under observation
for 10 days or a fortnight, and at the end of that
period to take swabs from the 15 positive cases. This was
done on the 1st January, and three positive results were
obtained, 11 negative, and in one Hoffman's bacillus was
found to be present.
"In all 33 cases of Diphtheria have occurred, the
majority of these, however, only having been recognised by
bacteriological examination.
"The Girls' and Infants' School was thoroughly disinfected
with formalin on the 17th December, and I advised the
destruction of some books and cards which had been used by
the infected children. The whole of the sanitary arrangements
in this school were tested last year and a certificate
granted by me to the effect that the result was satisfactory.
On the occasion of my visit on the 17th, all the sanitary
arrangements were in a satisfactory condition.
"There are about 107 children, 32 in the Infants' room
and 75 in the Girls' room, in atendance at the school.
"I also observed in the school that only one roller towel
was supplied for the use of over 100 children, and I was
informed that this was only changed once a week. It is quite
possible that this towel was infected by the child first notified,
and also that the other children were infected by using the
same towel. I have advised the managers to give instructions
for a clean towel to be provided each day.