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The medical officer of health of Stoke Newington states that in three cases there were the strongest
possible reasons for believing that the infection was communicated by a patient recently dismissed
from a fever hospital. In Fulham, in twelve instances the disease recurred in the household within
ten days after the return of the patient. In Wandsworth (Clapham) there were four return cases. In
two of these no cause was assignable, in two there was discharge from the ears of the patient who had
returned. In the report relating to Wandsworth parish the particulars of fourteen households in
which return cases occurred are given. In four cases the returned patient was desquamating or had
discharge from the nose. In some of these households re-infections occurred a second and third time.
In Plumstead five cases were noted. In one of these cases the child had a severe cold, with running
from the nose and roughness of the skin of the hands and legs; in another there were sores on the
face and nose, and in a third a sore on and discharge from the nostril. The patients had all been
away a considerable time, one as long as twelve weeks.
Scarlet fever and elementary schools.
Reference to the subject of infection through school attendance is found in the reports relating
to the following districts—
Kensington.—The medical officer of health gives the following account of the infection of a
number of children attending the Buckingham-terrace Board School—
In the tenth (monthly) report I reported the absence of 17 children ill with scarlet fever, other 58
children living at the infected houses being excluded from the school. J ust at this time a child who had
been in attendance for nine days was found to be peeling. Two other children in the family had been
previously removed to hospital. This child's case had not been notified, and only came to light upon an
examination of her hands by the head teacher, resulting from a communication received from a mother
excusing her own girl's non-attendance upon the ground that she didn't want her to come into contact
with the infected child: it was obvious, therefore, that the parents could not have been in ignorance of
the peeling and the cause of it.
Chelsea.—The closure of the schools was followed by a very small fall in the notified cases in
August. In Kensal-town there was increase in the number of cases in the four weeks of holiday as
compared with the number in the four preceding and four subsequent weeks.
Westminster.—"Several cases occurred in children attending St. Mary's Schools, Hide-place, in
July, but by keeping a strict watch on and examining the children attending the school from the
houses in which the cases occurred, the number of cases speedily decreased."
Islington.—In his report, the medical officer of health considers the mean prevalence of scarlet
fever in each week of the period 1890-97 in three sections of the Islington population, viz., those under
three years of age, those from three to fourteen and those aged fourteen and upwards. The results
are stated diagrammatically. He shows that whereas in the first and third section there was increase
of scarlet fever in the month of August, there was in children of school age some decrease; and that
whereas in September there was increase of cases among children of pre-school age from 145 in
August to 158, and in persons of past school age decrease from 210 in August to 189, the number of
cases in children of school age rose from 778 in August to 1,155 in September. He concludes that
school infection alone affords explanation of these figures.
Stoke Newington.—"School attendance was ascribed as the origin of the infection in fifteen cases;
infection in a preceding case (apart from school) in four." The medical officer of health states that the
practice in the Board schools of giving medals to those who have punctually attended school the
greatest possible number of times during the school year leads to children attending while suffering
from sore throat and to the concealment of infectious disease in houses.
Limehouse.—The annual report contains an account of scarlet fever in a family which was
brought to the knowledge of the medical officer of health by the headmistress of the Collingwoodstreet
Board School, who informed him that she had sent home a girl because her hands were
desquamating. On the medical officer visiting the home of this girl, whose parents kept a sweetstuff
shop, he found three other children, in the absence of the parents, in charge of the shop, and all bearing
evidence of recent scarlet fever. The parents were found, and with them two other children who were
suffering from scarlet fever. One of the girls was a monitor in the Board School and handed round
the books. These books, with the consent of that Board, were destroyed, as were also the contents of
the shop. The children were removed to hospital, and, pending the disinfection of the house, the
parents were removed to a shelter. The headmistress was requested by the medical officer to daily
examine children attending the school, and, as a result, several other cases of scarlet fever were
discovered.
Battersea.—Several class-rooms in the Winstanley-road School were disinfected on account of
the prevalence of scarlet fever among the pupils. The investigation of a complaint as to scarlet fever
prevalence among the pupils of the St. George's Schools led the medical officer of health to conclude
there was no undue incidence on these pupils.
Elthnm.—An outbreak, chiefly among the pupils of the Roper-street National School, and
affecting thirty persons, is reported. The first case was that of a child who visited a shop in Eltham,
the occupier of which became infected. He (the occupier) was removed to a neighbouring street, where
other children became infected. The disease appears then to have been introduced into the school.
Owing to the want of accommodation only about half the cases could be removed to hospital.
Later there was a smaller outbreak among the children at the Board School at Pope-street, which was
apparently stopped by the exclusion from school of children who lived in infected houses.
Flumstead.—The report of the medical officer of health contains the following statement—
Between the 3rd and 28th June, 12 cases of scarlet fever were reported to me. all living in the
isolated group of streets known as the Slade district; eight houses were affected, and children from all these
houses attended the Slade Board School; nine of the patients were themselves scholars at the school.
Milk was supplied to the above-mentioned houses from five different sources, and there were
exceptionally few cases of scarlet fever outside this district. I made inquiries at five ho.lses and, with one
exception, could find no connection between the cases besides the common school. The exception was
that the mother of one patient had visited frequently next door, where another case occurred.