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Disinfectants are supplied free of charge in every case.
The Council also supply Antitoxine to all Medical
Practitioners, for the treatment of cases in the Borough.
The above measures have been in force for some years,
at the present time the following additional precautions are
taken:—
Bacteriological Laboratory. This was established in 1906,
and free diagnosis is given to Medical Practitioners in connection
with all suspicious cases of sore throat, and there is no
doubt by this means many cases of Diphtheria, which otherwise
would not have been discovered, have been detected and
isolated.
Since the establishment of the Laboratory, no case of
Diphtheria treated in Hospital is discharged until examination
has proved it to be free from Diphtheria bacilli. Recently, the
Medical Practitioners in the Borough were asked to adopt this
method in connection with cases of this disease which they
treat at home. It was pointed out that Diphtheria bacilli
occasionally persist in the throat long after all symptoms have
subsided, and as such cases can only be recognised by bacteriological
examination, it is important that this should be done
before isolation is discontinued. Their co-operation in this
matter was particularly asked in all cases where the tonsils
were enlarged, where the patients attended school, or where
young children were present in the house.
During the present year, in all cases where the Sanitary
Inspectors' reports showed the presence of many children in the
house, I have personally visited the premises and taken
"swabs" from the throats of all contacts. In this way many
persons apparently well, but who were really harbouring
Diphtheria germs in their throats, have been discovered and
isolated. Nine of these so-called "carrier cases" have been
admitted to the Hospital during the past few months.
If the investigation of a case points, as it frequently does,
to a school being the source of infection, this is visited, the
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