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64
EDMONTON URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL.
Suggested alteration in the procedure at present in
force for dealing with Communicable Disease in the
Schools.
To the Chairman and Members of the Education Committee.
Gentlemen,
For some time past I have had under consideration the procedure
for endeavouring to control communicable disease, in so far as it
relates to school attendance, and I now beg to offer some suggestions
on the matter for your consideration.
First as regards rule 7 in the Code of Instructions to Teachers,
which reads as follows :—
"Any child showing symptoms of an infectious disease,
or returning to school too soon after being ill with such a
disease, or coming from an infected abode, must be sent home
at once."
I would suggest that this rule might be modified to meet the
necessary requirements of the different groups of infectious diseases.
All cases of infectious disease should certainly be excluded from
school attendance, but the circumstances of their return to school
and the exclusion of other children in the infected family will vary,
in time and extent, according to the group under which the disease
in question falls.
In the first group, which includes most of the notifiable diseases,
viz.:—small-pox, scarlet fever (or scarlatina), typhoid fever,
and diphtheria, all children from the infected household should
be excluded until such time as the school authorities are informed
by the Medical Officer of Health that these children may safely
resume attendance. A system by which these diseases are dealt
with is already in existence, and needs no further comment.