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75
NOTIFICATION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES BY SCHOOL
TEACHERS.
Several instances occurred of teachers failing to give
notice to the Medical Officer of Health of the absence of children
on account of the existence of various infectious diseases.
Certain diseases are notifiable by medical attendants, under the
Public Health (London) Act, viz., small-pox, diphtheria, cholera,
membraneous croup, erysipelas, scarlatina, scarlet fever, and
the fevers known by any of the following names:—typhus,
typhoid, enteric and relapsing. Chicken-pox is also at times
notifiable.
In addition to these diseases there are also the following
non-notifiable infectious diseases dangerous to school children:—
measles, mumps and whooping cough. If any child shows
symptoms of any of the above diseases or comes from a house
where such disease is known to exist, it must be dealt with in
the following manner:—
" When no notice has been received from the Medical
Officer of Health for the district, the head teacher of the
department which the child is attending must at once
furnish the Medical Officer of Health for the district with
the name and address of the child and the reason for its
exclusion."
It is more particularly in regard to measles that this
information from schools is most valuable. In several
instances we were informed by teachers that they were completely
ignorant of the fact that it was their duty to send these
notifications.
Your Public Health Committee communicated with the
London County Council drawing their attention to the omissions,
in consequence of which a notice was issued in the London