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SMALLPOX SURVEILLANCE
The arrangements continued as described in the previous Annual Report. The number of
persons kept under surveillance during the year was 3 compared with 2 in 1969.
ENTERIC FEVER SURVEILLANCE
The arrangements remained as described previously and eight persons were under surveillance
during the year.
TWO OUTBREAKS OF INFECTION IN SCHOOLS
VERRUCAE
Early in 1970 information was received that cases of verrucae of the feet were evident
amongst those attending two of the Borough's swimming baths. This was not a new way to learn
about a possible outbreak of this type of skin infection, nor was it a new suggestion that there
might have been a causative association between the cases occurring in school children and
swimming in the public baths.
This suggestion was reinforced by the fact that surface water from the floor in the dressing
area at one of the baths was not draining properly and so might be spreading the infection.
Reports of investigations elsewhere in the country, which were quoted by the Chief Medical
Officer of the Department of Education and Science, failed to substantiate any association with
swimming or physical education over and above any other type of communal contact at school.
Nevertheless a full scale enquiry was mounted and school children in all schools in the Borough
were inspected for two specific reasons, first of all to assess the size of the outbreak and see if the
existing arrangements were adequate to deal with it and secondly to test the significance or otherwise
of public bath swimming as a cause.
The answer to the second of these questions came first because the first schools to be dealt
with were those using the baths with the faulty floor. In these ten schools 2644 children were
examined and 105 were found to be affected and approximately half of these children did not
attend the baths.
Thus 36,364 inspections were carried out (some schools were re-inspected after a period of
about 6—9 months at the request of Head Teachers), and 1313 children were found to have planter
warts at the time of the inspection. This amounted to 3.6% of the school population.
A further study was carried out to ascertain if there was any difference in the infection of
children attending the swimming baths and those known not to attend, with the following results: —
105