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6g
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
"I therefore advised the Medical Office of the Education
Department that the school should be closed on Friday the
16th July, so that the whole school could be thoroughly disinfected
and cleansed.
"In all 32 cases have been notified, eight from the
Infants' Department, 16 from the Girls' Department, and
eight from the Boys' Department. In the Boys' Department
the majority of the cases were infected out of school, and two
of the boys attending had sisters suffering from the disease.
"The cases were of an exceedingly mild type, in fact in
the majority of cases it was almost impossible to make a
correct diagnosis in the first ten days, and it was not until
desquamation had occurred that a definite diagnosis could be
arrived at.
"In those cases that I personally examined, the desquamation
was quite characteristic, but the history of previous
sore throat and feverishness, although obtainable, was not so
definite as to impress on the parents the necessity for obtaining
medical advice.
"In a considerable number of the cases excluded by the
London County Council Medical Officer, there was a history
of sore throat, and there is no doubt that some of those cases
were of an Infectious character. It was also clear that the
later desquamation in Scarlet Fever is not so infectious as
was at one time supposed, otherwise there would have been a
considerable number of cases infected by the attendance of
the two children excluded on June 28th.
"The Girls' and Infants' Departments will be thoroughly
disinfected this week, and I have been informed that the
whole school is to be cleansed and redecorated during the
holidays."
In Sunnyhill Road, eight out of a total of 17 cases occurred in
April, but five of the cases in that month were in one house.
F