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Unfortunately, there is no waiting room available, so that parents and
children have to wait in the passage, and children are sometimes brought who
should be in bed.
Suspicious cases of sore throats or sore noses are swabbed, either at the
Town Hall or at the school Clinic, to determine the presence or otherwise of
the diphtheria bacillus. The Head Teachers, especially in the Infants'
Departments, are alive to the danger of such sore noses, and send the children
to have swabs taken.
The incidence of diphtheria has been so low recently that it has been
almost possible to treat such cases, from the administrative point of view, as
if they were cases of smallpox. The Lady Sanitary Inspector visits the classroom
of the patient and makes a thorough search for any possible carrier.
Her work in the investigation of this disease has been very valuable and
must have been responsible for a part of the reduction of the incidence of the
disease which we now enjoy.
The investigation of scarlet fever has followed, as far as possible, on
similar lines.
The number of children of school age notified to be suffering from scarlet
fever during 1933 was 241, of which slightly more than half occurred during
the last four months of the year. The corresponding number for diphtheria
was 42, of which 31 cases occurred during the last four months.
One child of school age died of scarlet fever during the year.
Among the non-notifiable diseases, mumps, chickenpox and whooping
cough made their appearance, the two former towards the end of the year, and
the latter existing in sporadic fashion but becoming more prevalent in the
autumn months.
Prevention of Infectious Diseases.
Individual children suffering from infectious complaints and home contacts
of such cases are excluded under Article 20(b) of the Code-Grant Regulations
in accordance with the Memorandum issued jointly by the Ministry of Health
and the Board of Education.