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Infectious diseases in schools
When a pupil is absent from school, and the cause is either known or suspected to be due
to infectious disease, the head of the school notifies the divisional medical officer and the
borough medical officer of health.
These notifications are uncorrected for diagnosis, but form the best available index of
the trend of infectious disease in the school community and are the only figures available
in respect of diseases which are not statutorily notifiable.
When the number of cases of infectious disease reported from a particular school
indicates the possibility of an outbreak, special visits are made by a school health visitor
and, if necessary, by a school doctor, in order to investigate the situation and take whatever
control action is necessary.
The numbers of cases of infectious diseases reported during 1959 and the preceding
years are given below:
1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
Chicken-pox 8,366 8,424 4,496 8,901 5,399
Dysentery, diarrhoea or enteritis 446 1,458 414 1,170 1,148
German measles 639 1,775 2,081 2,549 1,325
Impetigo 522 354 301 265 192
Jaundice 133 132 75 11 19
Measles 16,724 2,903 13,039 5,045 9,326
Mumps 1,982 6,059 5,509 2,778 3,788
Ophthalmia and conjunctivitis 271 280 291 319 264
Ringworm (scalp) 80 5 8 13 13
Ringworm (body) 44 55 38 46
Scabies 72 53 61 61 57
Scarlet fever 984 1,020 1,037 1,251 1,264
Sore throat and tonsilitis .. .. 937 897 864 994 1,299
Whooping cough 1,614 1,857 1,372 485 508
Prophylaxis—The new system of recording medical inspection findings by years of birth
permits an analysis of the percentage of school pupils, according to age, who have received
prophylaxis, based on the findings at periodic general medical inspections. These figures
may be compared with the separate estimates, prepared for the Ministry of Health, given
on pages 73 and 74 which also contain details of poliomyelitis vaccination of school pupils:
% %
Age Group Number of pupils % Immunised Immunised
(year of examination examined Vaccinated against against
minus year of birth) Diphtheria Whooping cough
4 or less 7,660 54.6 82.0 73.1
5 29,317 53.2 78.8 67.5
6 7,069 48.9 72.9 58.9
7 13,278 52.4 85.3 59.9
8 8,540 51.1 82.4 53.9
9 3,128 50.3 74.9 45.2
10 1,817 46.8 706 39.7
11 15,424 49.6 87.3 46.5
12 8,744 60.1 87.5 41.7
13 2,896 60.6 84.0 31.3
14 8,204 53.3 83.6 26.6
15 and over 30,186 54.6 86.8 24.2
' Outbreak ' at a school due to excessive dust—The following account of an ' outbreak '
at a school in Kensington is of interest as an illustration of how effective action can be
taken by the public health inspectorate following notification by a school of cases of
absence due to illness:
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