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"The large number of cases notified and admitted to Hospital
during October was due to my visiting the Infants' Department of
Hartley Avenue, Fourth Avenue, and Napier Road Schools, and
discovering a number of infected contacts by bacteriological
examination of " swabs " from throats of these children.
" In one case a family of seven children was infected by one
of the children having a mild attack of Nasal Diphtheria, who I
found still in attendance at school, and had not been medically
attended.
" It has been impossible to trace the source of the outbreak.
The milk supply has been ascertained, and in most cases the
families affected have been supplied with milk by different dairymen.
" The disease is in most cases of a severe type, and in five
cases it was necessary to perform tracheotomy, all of whom recovered.
Preventive Methods Undertaken to Control the Spread
of the Disease.
" On receipt of a notification of a case of Diphtheria the patient
is at once removed to Hospital, if this is desired or necessary, and
the room previously occupied and its contents are disinfected.
Library books, if present, are removed for disinfection. Whether
removed to Hospital or not, the Sanitary Inspector at once calls
and obtains all particulars of the case and endeavours to trace the
source of infection. He also leaves a printed form giving full
instructions as to isolation, etc., and the precautions which should
be adopted to prevent the spread of infection. Information is
obtained as to the day and Sunday schools attended, either by the
patient or by children in the house, the school authorities are