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children sent home for surveillance until the incubation period
was over. Daily visits to the school were made and any child
with a suspicious fever, malaise or rash carefully examined and
kept under observation. Fortunately there were no secondary
cases at the school. (Details of the smallpox outbreak are fully
set out in the Medical Officer of Health's Annual Report).
Later in the year Tottenham and Hornsey were affected by the
influenza virus A (Asian) prevalent in this country. The first
school to be affected was in the Muswell Hill area of Hornsey
where many children were reported absent with gastric symptoms and
indeed the first diagnosis considered was food poisoning, as true
Asian influenza had not yet been diagnosed in the Greater London
area. Together with a virologist from the Public Health Laboratories
at Colindalei, visits were made to a number of children
reported ill in their own homes and from the throats of two of
these children influenza A (Asian) was cultured. Apart from
prompt exclusion of cases, little could be done to stop the spread
of illness. The same picture was later seen repeatedly, the
attack beginning in the infant classes and spreading upwards to
the juniors and seniors. The pandemic rolled across Hornsey from
north west to south east and inexorably into Tottenham. Fortun
ately, although morbidity was very high, mortality was very low
only one school child dying of the illness.
Five school children contracted paralytic poliomyelitis
during the year of whom two were receiving physiotherapy at the
end of the year. None is so handicapped as to be likely to
require special schooling.
There were no outbreaks of food poisoning or dysentery during
the year.
Tuberculosis in Schools
The year 1957 saw a further reduction in the incidence of
tuberculosis in school children, there being only three cases (all
forms) compared with seven in 1956 and 14 in 1955. These three
cases were discussed with the appropriate chest physicians, but in
no instance was it considered necessary to carry out epidemiological
investigations at the school.
The patch testing programme was carried out in "entrants" on
a somewhat restricted scale, partly owing to the influenza epidemic.
591 children were so tested and of these, 19 were positive, a
total of 3,2%. Investigation of circumstances proved negative