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26
Schools and Infection.
In the first term of the year there were no groupings of cases amongst
children attending the public elementary schools to suggest that attendance
was responsible for the spread of infection, though the general
incidence of infection throughout the term was heavier at two schools.
One of these was Grimsdyke School which in the next term had further
cases, in all 11 throughout the term, but not more than three in any
one week. The other, Stanburn School, which in the first term had 11
cases over eight weeks had a further 9 cases over nine weeks in the
summer term. Belmont School in this term had 7 cases over three weeks.
The heaviest grouping was at Stag Lane School where there were 15 cases
over nine weeks, in one of which there were 5 cases. The only suggestive
grouping in the winter term was at Kenmore School where there were
7 cases over three weeks, though these cases were distributed throughout
five classes.
ENTERIC FEVER.
Five patients were notified as suffering from typhoid fever, though
in one the notification was withdrawn, the diagnosis being changed to
one of enteritis. All four cases were of para.-B. infection. There was
no apparent connection between the cases, one occurring in February,
two in different parts of the district in April (one being apparently a
recurrence of an old-standing infection) and the other, which proved
fatal, occurring in May. Two of the patients were admitted to isolation
hospitals for treatment, one to a general hospital, while the other was
treated at home.
DYSENTERY.
For the last few years the incidence of dysentery has been irregular,
ranging from the one case notified in 1940 to as many as 24 in 1937.
This year's 15 notifications include those relating to two members of the
staff of a local hospital who fell ill in July, and four cases amongst the
patients and staff at another hospital in September, and a member of the
staff of a hospital outside this district at which the infection had apparently
been contracted. The Sonne organism was found in most cases,
the only patient in whom some other organism was found being an adult
female who had only recently come to reside here ; the Flexner organism
found in this case was probably the cause of the colitis from which she
had suffered for years. Of the remaining cases of infection amongst the
members of the general community, three occurred in August, one being
an adult male, another an adult female and the third a boy of 16. In
September there was the one case of a boy of 7, in October an adult male
and in December another boy of 7.
Of those patients living at home most were treated at home, three
being admitted to a general hospital and one to isolation hospital.
FOOD POISONING.
Only one patient was notified as suffering from food poisoning, this
being an adult female who succumbed in August to infection by B.
Aetrycke.