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routine disinfection of schools is considered to be valueless, and therefore a waste
of public money. In the Memorandum on "Closure of and Exclusion from School"
issued jointly by the Ministry of Health and the Board of Education, which is referred
to below, the following statement appears:—"There is little doubt that infection
in schools is spread to a much greater extent by infectious persons than by infected
things. . . This statement forms the general basis of preventive work in
the London schools.
Memorandum
on
closure of and
exclusion
from school.
This Memorandum, which was issued in 1925 to local education and sanitary
authorities under the joint auspices of the Ministry of Health and Board of Education,
is a revised edition of the Memorandum published under the same title in 1909.
It deals with the principles governing the closure of schools and the exclusion of
individual children therefrom on grounds of infectious illness, and enunciates in
detail the methods by which such principles should be carried out in practice, including
isolation and quarantine periods, etc. Broadly speaking, it corresponds
with the practice adopted in London, as was the case with the earlier publication.
The Memorandum contains slight divergencies from the previous issue, special
reference being made to the question of school closure, concerning which an alteration
in policy is adopted. In an introductory note the following paragraph appears:—
(1) If there is one general principle more than another upon which this
Memorandum lays stress, it is that if during epidemics of infectious disease,
the power to exclude individual children from School be used to the best advantage,
it is only in special and quite exceptional circumstances that it will be necessary
to close a School in the interests of public health. This principle was laid down
asone of the fundamental ideas underlying the previous edition of this Memorandum,
and the experience of the last 15 years has only gone to strengthen it.
Prior to the issue of this Memorandum, Local Education Authorities were empowered
under Article 45 (6) of the Board of Education's Code of Begulations to close
schools on the ground that school attendance was seriously lowered by reason of
the prevalence of infectious illness. The Board's regulation (Article 45 (b)) has now
been amended to secure that school closure shall not in future be allowed for grant
purposes on such grounds alone, and provides that schools can only be closed for
purely medical reasons.
Apart from this modification regarding school closure, exclusion periods for
certain diseases were amended, as follows:—
Scarlet Fever.—The period of exclusion of home contacts to be 7 days,
instead of 14 days, as formerly.
Measles.—Children suffering from measles to be excluded for 3 weeks
instead of 4 weeks. The conditions of exclusion of contacts remain unaltered.
German Measles.—Sufferers to be excluded for one week instead of two
weeks. No alteration in the period of exclusion of contacts.
Instructions based upon these revised quarantine rules have been incorporated
in the Council's Handbook of Infectious Diseases and have been issued for the
guidance of teachers in London schools.
General
review of
incidence of
infectious
illness and of
the visitation
of schools.

* Prevalence of German measles.