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The Memorandum of the Ministry of Health aqnd the
Board of Education on Closure of and Exclusion from
School is closely followed in this particular.
(b) Closure of Schools.
(c) Disinfection of Schools.
(a) In the case of notifiable diseases occurring in houses
where there are children attending school, notices on special
exclusion forms are sent out from the Public Health Department
to the Head Teachers and Chief Attendance Officer. Children
from such infected houses are excluded until the necessary
re-admission forms have been issued.
The notifiable infectious diseases occurring amongst school
children are dealt with in the report of. the Medical Officer of
Health.
(b) School closure is rarely resorted to to-day for the purpose
of controlling infectious diseases. During 1931 it was not
found necessary to close any of the schools in the district for this
purpose.
(c) The routine disinfection of each school was carried out by
the Sanitary Staff during the mid-summer holiday. Disinfection
of classrooms was also carried out periodically as the necessity
arose during the course of the year.
(d) Valuable information is obtained from the weekly
returns of absences due to infectious diseases furnished by the
Head Teachers. The numbers of cases of non-notifiable diseases
reported from the schools during 1931 were as follows:—
Measles 7
German Measles 11
Whooping Cough 80
Mumps 36
Chicken Pox 28
During the year under review there was comparatively little
sickness amongst school children from the non-notifiable infectious
diseases. Whooping cough was responsible for the largest
number of cases. Only seven cases of measles occurred. During
1930 measles was very prevalent and 423 school children contracted
the disease.
No case of smallpox occurred amongst school children in
Wimbledon during 1931. Two school children were contacts of
a case of smallpox and they were kept under daily observation
until the period of quarantine had expired.
Erequent visits were paid to the schools after children had
been removed to the Isolation Hospital suffering from diphtheria
or scarlet fever. It is quite common for children to attend school
whilst sickening for these diseases. In all such cases flic class
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