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94
During the year 27 special investigations were made by the Council's public
health inspectors in cases where the condition of schools or of their environment
were alleged to have been responsible for rendering children more susceptible to
infectious illness.
The services of the school nursing staff were utilised for investigating and giving
advice to teachers during the prevalence of minor infectious ailments and in this
connection 343 schools were visited from time to time (chicken-pox, 179 schools;
whooping-cough, 52; mumps, 99; impetigo, 4; influenza, 9). School nurses were
also employed on a certain number of occasions in supplementing and following
up the enquiries of the medical staff during special outbreaks of scarlet fever and
diphtheria. In each instance the school was visited daily, or as often as possible,
the children inspected, absentees examined on their return, and, in the case of
diphtheria, swabs taken where required. In recent months the nurses have been
visiting schools and taking all necessary action in connection with the prevalence
of measles.
Diphtheria.
The numbers of cases of diphtheria notified from the schools during the past
four quinquennia are as follow:—
Quinquennia. 1906-10. 1911-15. 1916-20. 1921-25.
Number of cases of diphtheria in Council's schools 12,601 14,653 18,515 25,016
This steady rise in the prevalence of diphtheria is deserving of special study,
especially having regard to the increased precautions which are taken in the schools
in recent years as regards the investigation of school outbreaks and the bacteriological
examination of children in affected classes. The notification figures are
undoubtedly swollen by the inclusion of purely bacteriological cases, though to
what extent it is difficult to say, as no differentiation is made in the notification
returns between clinical and bacteriological cases. It is, however, noteworthy
that scarlet fever, the diagnosis of which does not rest upon bacteriological
findings, has declined more rapidly since the epidemic years 1920-22, than has
diphtheria.

* Negative cases are those in which there was no evidence of diphtheria beyond that of the admission
certificate (these cases are not included in col. 4).