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23
(4) Chemical and Bacteriological Work during the Year.
No laboratory is attached to the Public Health Department,
but the County Laboratory, established at
Maidstone, carries out any necessary bacteriological examinations.
Under present arrangements each medical
man practising in the District is supplied by the County
Medical Officer with the necessary apparatus for taking
swabs or blood, and when taken these are forwarded to
Maidstone for examination. Reports on the results
found are forwarded both to the medical man concerned,
and also to myself as Medical Officer of Health, and at
the same time fresh apparatus is forwarded to the medical
man to replace the one used.
During 1915 161 swabs were sent for examination for
Diphtheria Bacilli, and 2 of Enteric Fever blood.
During the same period 18 specimens of sputum were
sent up for examination for the presence of the Tubercule
Bacillus.
D.—Prevalence of and Control over Acute
Infectious Diseases.
There were 366 cases of infectious Disease (not including
cases of Tuberculosis) notified during 1915, as
compared with 425 in 1914. Of these 231 were Scarlet
Fever, 195 Diphtheria, 21 Erysipelas, 3 Enteric Fever,
and 1 Puerperal Fever.