View report page

19
Greenicich (Greenwich)—During February the Blackball Board School was closed on
account of prevalence of measles.
(Deptford)—In February the infants' department of the Mantle-road Board School was
closed for 14 days for a similar reason, 155 children out of 323 attending the department being
absent. The infants' department of the St. James', Hatcham, National Schools was also closed.
Woolwich—On the recommendation of the medical officer of health the infants' department
of the St. Peter's Roman Catholic School was closed in February for a period of three weeks.
Plumstead—The report of the medical officer of health contains the following statement—
By means of the action you (the vestry) had taken in asking the School Board to call their teachers'
attention to their printed regulations re notifying infectious diseases, I began at the commencement of
the year to receive intimations as to children away from school on account of measles in their home.
Iu the course of the year I received altogether 609 such notifications. Several teachers, however, either
did not receive, or did not attend to the School Board's instructions; for on the 10th February I was
informed that 71 children out of 142 were absent from the Knee-hill Board School on account of
measles, and two days later, I was informed that 141 children were absent from Eglinton-road School for
the same reason. In both cases this was the first intimation that I had received of the existence of
measles at these schools. The infant department of both these schools were closed for a period of six
weeks. Later on it became necessary to close the infant departments of the.following schools—Vicarageroad,
Slade, Conway-road, High-street and Plumstead-road. These latter schools were closed for five
weeks only. The first of them was closed on the 29th May, and the last on the 7th June.
The good effect of the closure of the schools was marked. The spread of the disease at each end of
the parish was obviously stopped by the closure at Abbey-wood and Eglinton-road. The good effect of
closure of the other five schools is seen from the deaths registered from measles in each of the eight
weeks following the 14th May, viz., 4, 4, 4, 11, 2, 4, 2, 0. The school notification of measles was of much
service in enabling me to take early measures for the closure of the above schools. It would be more
useful if uniformly and more carefully employed. Evidently several teachers omitted to notify, and it
was found, on visiting the house, in a large number of cases, that the patient had recovered some time.
Each house was visited on notification, a paper of instructions left, and means taken to prevent other
children in the house from attending other schools (including Sunday schools) than that from which the
notification had been received.
During the year the Council received a letter from the School Board for London proposing
that the Council should, by the necessary resolution, declare measles a dangerous infectious disease
for the purposes set out in section 68 of the Public Health (London) Act, in order to give facilities
to sanitary authorities to proceed, if necessary, against persons who send their children to school
while suffering from measles. The Public Health Committee of the Council thereupon invited the
opinion of sanitary authorities as to the desirability of extending to measles the provisions of the
Public Health Act relating to dangerous infectious diseases other than that of notification. The
subject is still under consideration.
Scarlet Fever.
The cases of scarlet fever notified in the Administrative County of London during 1898
numbered 16,920, compared with 22,904 in 1897. The number of deaths registered from this cause
in 1898 was 581. divine a death-rate of 0.13 per 1.000 liviner Der annum.

The death-rate in each year in relation to the mean death-rate of the period 1859-98 is shown
in diagram VI.
It will be seen from the following table that in the period 1888-97 the London scarlet fever
death-rate exceeded the rates of Leeds, Bristol, Nottingham, and Hull, and in 1898 the rates of
Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Bradford, Hull, and West Ham—

* The Infectious Diseases (Notification) Act only came into force in 1889.
1 See footnote (l) page 3. 2 See footnote (2) page 3.