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In the Edmonton Schools any child suffering from Diarrhoea is
excluded from school until Sonne Dysentery has been bacteriologically disapproved.
The child is given a faeces container and the parents bring
the filled container with a completed form to the Public Health Laboratory
at the Edmonton Town Hall. If Sonne Dysentery or some other condition is
found the child is then referred to the family doctor. This method saves
"false alarms". It does occasionally happen that a child is away from
school and is described by the parents as having had a bilious attack or
a "tummy upset", when in fact there has been diarrhoea. A busy head
teacher may well not enquire further and such children on occasion are
found to be sources of Sonne Dysentery infection.
The epidemic in the Eldon Road Infants School lasted until
the end of June and 50 children were infected in all out of a total of
about 350. About half of these had diarrhoea, the other half had little
or no symptoms. In July there was a small outbreak at St. Edmund's
Junior School and about six cases were discovered and in December there
were three cases at Haselbury Infants School, one of which was severe
enough to warrant removal to the hospital.
There were in all, including the giardia cases, 285 new
Dysentery infections in 1959. This is a substantial number but considering
that the number of children in Edmonton under 10 years of age
is about 12,000, not a large proportion.
PARATYPHOID FEVER
A woman of 67 developed symptoms of enteritis, and her own
doctor found on investigation that she was suffering from Paratyphoid
Fever (b). As her daughter-in-law was a catering worker, she was
removed to hospital. Her daughter-in-law was free from infection, but
her son was infected, and he was admitted to hospital for a course of
treatment. Both cases cleared up under treatment in hospital, and there
was no further infection, either in this family or elsewhere in the
Borough.
WHOOPING COUGH
A small epidemic of whooping cough began in October, and
39 cases were notified in the final quarter of the year. Three children
were sufficiently ill to require removal to hospital. The disease is
becoming much more common to school children, mainly Infants' School
children, and mothers whose children have been immunised and escaped
whooping cough would be well advised to see that the child has a booster
injection against whooping cough as well as against diptheria, before he
or she starts school.
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