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All absentee children were visited by the Health Visitors and
those found to have diarrhoea were swabbed.
On May 11th. all members of the staff and all ohildren in
attendance at the Nursery were swabbed, and the usual Dysenteric
precautions were put into operation.
Leaflets of advice were given to all parents and rigorous
cleaning and disinfection of the Nursery was carried out.
After consultation with the Ministry of Health the question
of closing the Nursery was deferred.
On the 13th.May a report was received from the Sector Laboratory
that three of the fifty-two swabs taken on the 11th. wore positive
and as the next day was a Saturday the Nursery was closed in order
to afford the opportunity for more thorough and complete
disinfection.
On May 15th two probationer nurses were reported off duty with
Diarrhoea and on request,visits were paid by a medical and a
nursing officer from the Ministry who advised that absentee
children should not be admitted until giving a negative rectal swab
and that absentees on account of Diarrhoea should be required to
give three consecutive negative rectal swabs at intervals of
three days.
During the outbreak twenty-three children gave positive swabs
and of these two had no clinical symptoms.
In addition, six children and two staff had symptoms but gave
negative swabs. In six of the cases other members of the same
household were affected.
Five children were admitted to hospital for domestic reasons
and the outbreak was apparently cleared by June 20th.1944.
On July 8th. a further case from this Nursery was notified by
a private practitioner. All staff and children were again
swabbed and seven of the children and one probationer gave
positive swabs.
No further case occurred until twelve days later when another
Probationer had Diarrhoea with a positive swab.
All cases were cleared by August 8th. and no further cases
were reported after that day for the remainder of the year.
HIGHAM HILL WAR-TIME DAY NURSERY.
The first case of Diarrhoea was reported on September 8th.
and a rectal swab proved Positive to Sonne Dysentery. On the
11th.September the child was admitted to Hospital and the
precautions previously adopted at the Wyatts Lane war-Time Day
Nursery in connection with the outbreak there early in the year
were repeated at Higham Hill Nursery. In particular, all staff,
nursing and domestic, and children were swabbed and absentees were
visited by the Health Visitors. Of 25 swabs taken, six from
ohildren were positive and all from the staff were negative.
On the 15th.September six farther swabs were taken from
children suffering from Diarrhoea and previously negative
three of these proved positive.
One child on re-admission following three negative swabs
suffered from Diarrhoea and to deal with such children Matron
was instructed to bed isolate or to oot isolate eaah re-admission
for at least one day.
During the whole outbreak 13 positive reotal swabs were
obtained and in six of these other members of the same household
were affected.
There were no cases of Anterior Poliomyelitis, Encephalitis
Lethargica nor of polio Encephalitis.
26.