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During 1955, 118 cases were notified, most of which occurred in two
local outbreaks in opposite ends of the district. The first outbreak involving
45 individuals in 32 families occurred on the Clock House Farm
Estate in March and April. Of the 45 cases, 26 were children attending a
school outside the district.
The second outbreak was on the St. Helier Estate in November and
December and affected 61 persons of whom 31 were schoolchildren. The
infection first showed itself among the children in the nursery class of the
Green Wrythe Lane Primary School, which school was undoubtedly the
primary factor in the spread of the infection. The ease with which this
illness spreads through members of the family is indicated by the fact that
only 21 households were affected, giving an average of three cases per house.
Except in one instance, in every family there was at least one notified case
attending the Green Wrythe Lane Primary School—the great majority
the Infants Department.
Only six cases attended the Junior Mixed Department, but in each of
these there was a brother or sister with the illness in the Infants Department.
These outbreaks were brought to an end by intensive investigation
including bacteriological examination of the domestic contacts and by the
insistence on strict personal hygiene for the households concerned. There
was no evidence whatever that the infection was due to contamination of
the food supplied at school meals and it can be safely concluded that it
owed its dissemination to defective hand hygiene. Control of intestinal
infection of this nature is essentially a matter of washing hands after visiting
the toilet and before taking food. In this connection it should be noted
that at the Green Wrythe Lane School, as in some others, there is as yet
no hot water supply for personal ablution. Children, particularly in Infants
School, cannot be expected voluntarily to wash in cold water in the
winter months. Steady progress is being made in bringing the sanitary
arrangements in schools up to the statutory standards provided by the
Regulations made under the Education Act, but this matter of adequate
washing and towel facilities is one which calls for priority.
Scarlet Fever
The incidence of scarlet fever although rather higher than in the year
before was again low. Seventy cases were notified, all residents of the district
giving an attack rate of 1.14 per 1,000 population. Half the total were
nursed at home. The illness was of the now usual mild variety and was not
fatal in any instance.
There is evidence that in recent years practitioners generally are
attaching less importance to the necessity for maintaining reasonable
isolation in cases of this infection. Undoubtedly scarlet fever is not the
serious disease it was 50 years ago, but it is still an infectious illness and
there is no justification for failing to take adequate precautions against
its spread. In two instances there were four cases in the same house.
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