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75
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
In Wandsworth :—
St. Anne's.
St. Joseph's.
St. Michael's.
St. Thomas's.
In all, 21 schools remained free from Diphtheria, compared
with 17 in 1907, and of these 17 were non-provided schools.
In one school, viz.:—Immanuel School, Streatham, swabs
were taken by the Assistant Medical Officer, London County
Council, during the year, and as a result of this three "carrier"
cases were discovered in Standard I., in which standard all the
notified cases occurred.
These cases were kept under observation and not permitted
to return to school until a bacteriological examination had been
made and a negative result obtained.
Swabs were also taken at Roehampton School on several
occasions during the year for the purpose of ascertaining if possible
how long the Klebs Loeffler bacillus continues in the throats
of school children, and also how long the virulence of the bacillus
lasts, but this investigation is still going on, and so far no definite
report can be made.
With regard to the 60 cases notified from the Union Infirmary,
these all occurred during the first four months of the year.
Of these, 48 were stated to have come from the Workhouse, one
from the Intermediate Schools, and 11 from houses in this
Borough.
With few exceptions, all these were cases of bacteriological
Diphtheria, that is, they were only notified as Diphtheria after
swabs had been taken. All the 60 cases were removed to hospital,
and further bacteriological examinations at the hospital
showed that in 21 of the cases the Klebs Loeffler bacillus was
found, but in only six was the bacillus virulent. In 39 of the cases
examined at the hospital the Klebs Loeffler bacillus was absent.