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Close co-operation has been maintained between the borough medical officers of
health and their stalls and the school medical and school nursing services in
connection with precautions taken to prevent the spread of smallpox in the schools.
The nursing stafi have carried out their supervisory duties in a highly satisfactory
manner, not only in connection with the general scheme of control in the schools,
but also with the special examination in school of the home contacts; and in this
connection it has been demonstrated that with adequate safeguards children who
are home contacts of the prevalent mild type of smallpox may, with perfect safety,
be allowed to remain in attendance at school.
The school nursing staff have now acquired considerable experience of these
supervisory duties, and, except for the necessity of providing additional skilled-nursing
assistance, there appears to be no valid reason against relaxing the school quarantine
regulations in respect of other diseases, and thus securing a further reduction in the
enormous loss of school attendance caused through the exclusion of home contacts
of infectious diseases.
During the year under review, 20 children (15 boys, 5 girls) were admitted to the
post encephalitis lethargica unit at the Northern hospital, Winchmore Hill. Seven
boys and two girls were discharged, and one boy died. The fatal case was considered
not to have suffered from encephalitis lethargica, but most probably from Schilder's
periaxial encephalitis. The patient died after a series of convulsions. At the end
of the year there were 35 boys and 17 girls under treatment.
It will be observed from the tabular statement above that the number of cases
of whooping cough reported from the schools (9,019) was higher than the figure
recorded for 1930 (3,239), which, however, was exceptionally low. The school
nurses visited 27 schools, where outbreaks occurred, for the purpose of keeping the
children under observation and advising the head teachers as to exclusion or
re-admission of children to school.
The school nurses visited 133 schools where chickenpox was prevalent, for the
purpose of keeping the children under special supervision.
The decrease in the number of cases of mumps compared with the previous two
years will be noted. The children in 79 schools were kept under observation by the
nursing staff.
There has been an increase in the number of cases of ophthalmia reported from
the schools. Much of this is due to an outbreak of the disease which occurred in a
group of schools in Battersea in the late summer, and persisted throughout the autumn
and winter terms. Special precautions were taken to prevent the disease spreading.
The five schools affected were visited daily by the school nurses, and the children
kept under special observation. Visits were also made by assistant medical officers
where necessary. Measures were taken at the schools to prevent the spread of
infection, including the cessation of attendance at the swimming baths, precautions
in connection with the use of towels, restrictions as regards the use of books, etc.
The closest co-operation was maintained throughout with the borough medical
officer and his staff. The outbreak in this district had subsided by the end of the
vear.
Post
encephalitis
lethargica.
Whooping
cough.
Chickenpox.
Mumps.
Ophthalmia.