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living in infected households. Not only the nature of the
infection and the length of illness, but the environments of the
individual as affecting the retention of infection will deserve
consideration. The period of exclusion, for example, will need
to be different according to the conditions of a patient's
lodgment, according to the sufficiency of the separation that
can be effected between a patient and excluded scholars, and
according to the opportunities of effectual disinfection that can
be afforded to the household. Thus a hard and fast rule, such
as has been laid down in some districts where scarlatina has
been present, that no child shall go to school from an infected
house for three months after the disease has begun in that
house, is not to be commended. It is indeed possible that
under the circumstances of a particular household, a child
convalescent from scarlatina or living in the same house with
convalescents should not in the interests of other children be
permitted to return to school until after so long a period as
this; but the same ought not to be assumed of all households
in the district that may be invaded by scarlatina. The better
plan would be for the sanitary authority to secure, during a
shorter period, the exclusion of individual sick persons and
their housemates from school; and when that period is
about to expire to cause fresh inquiry to be made as to the
expediency of further exclusion, and, if found requisite in
particular cases, to cause fresh notice to be given to the school
managers."
Section 9 says: "In deciding whether an outbreak of infectious
disease among children of school age may be best
combated by closing the school, or whether it will suffice to
exclude the children of infected households, the two most
important points to be considered are:—
(a) The completeness and promptness of the information
received by the officers of the sanitary authority respecting the
occurrence of infectious cases.
(b) The opportunities which exist for intercourse between
the children of different households elsewhere than at school."
Section 10 says: "The more prompt and full the knowledge
of cases of infectious disease that the sanitary authority are
able to obtain, the better will be the prospect of checking such
disease by keeping away from school the children of infected
households, and the less will be the necessity for closing
schools. If the cases be few in number, and their origin
known, the exclusion from school of the children of infected
households will probably suffice, but this measure will fail
where there are many undiscovered or unrecognised cases, or
where the known centres of infection are very numerous.