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78
The following schools required certificates under Paragraph
15 (ii) of the Administrative Memorandum No. 51 issued by the
Board of Education:
Bethams 2 weeks for measles.
Northfields Infants 4 weeks for measles.
Wood End Infants 1 week for measles and chicken
pox ; 2 weeks for measles.
The School Medical Officer, in virtue of his position as Medical
Officer of Health, receives information regarding all cases of
notifiable infectious disease and all school children who live in
the same house are isolated in accordance with the recommendations
of the Board of Education. Information is also sent to the School
Medical Officer from the head teachers concerning all children
excluded from school because of non-notifiable infectious diseases.
These school notifications include diseases such as mumps, measles,
chicken pox and whooping cough which, not being " notifiable
infectious diseases," would not be notified to him by the general
practitioner.
If there is a large number of cases of infectious
diseases in a school an Assistant School Medical Officer visits the
school. He makes inquiries regarding the health of the children
in the affected classes and inspects any child who has been absent
from school and whose explanation of absence is not satisfactory
from a health point of view or who has any suspicious sores or
discharges. In this way it is sometimes possible to discover a
missed case of scarlet fever or a carrier of diphtheria.
When a case of notifiable infectious disease occurs in a house
a visit is made by the Sanitary Inspector and an attempt is made
to connect up the case with others that have occurred and to
discover the source of infection. A pamphlet is left with the
householder explaining what steps should be taken to prevent the
spread of infection. It has frequently been possible to obtain
information regarding doubtful cases and this information has been
passed as a routine practice to the practitioner in charge of the
case. A member of the Public Health Staff is always available
for a second opinion in a case of infectious disease when requested
by the general practitioner.