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28
Some eight years have now elapsed since the Council
decided to arrange for the free examination of specimens forwarded
by medical practitioners in the District, and it is satisfactory
to note the increasing number of specimens sent to the
Lister Institute each year for bacteriological examination.
In the case of diphtheria, the examination of swabs taken
from the throat of a patient during convalescence, and in some
instances from the throats of other members of the household,
is of considerable value from the preventive point of view, and
I believe that much good would result from the more frequent
use of these precautionary measures, as it is well recognised that
persons in apparently good health may harbour the bacillus
of diphtheria, and thus prove a source of infection.
In order to avoid needless delay, the result of an examination
is now sent by telegraphic message direct from the Lister
Institute to the practitioner who forwarded the specimen, at
the same time a copy of the report is posted to these offices.
For several years a. supply of anti-diphtheritic serum has
been kept at the Public Health Offices, and doctors have been
supplied with the same at cost price. In December last the
Council resolved that the serum should in future be given free
of charge, if required for use in cases where the means of the
patients do not enable them to pay for it.