View report page

20
Diphtheria on October 4th, 1910. The medical man in attendance
on this last year's case described it as quite mild in character, but
the presence of the bacilli was very persistent. The child was
declared well on November 8th and allowed to return to school on
November 21st. I visited this house and took swabbings from
the throats of the children. Both the patient of last year and the
suspected child from the infected class were found to have the
bacilli present, and it was not until January, 1912 that two
successive negative reports showing absence of Diphtheria bacilli
were received from the Lister Institute. At the expiration of
fourteen days from the receipt of this freedom report these children
were allowed to return to school.
One of the children sent home from the class as somewhat
suspicious went.away on a visit to cousins in Middlesex. Eight
days after his arrival with them a Diphtheria case occurred in the
family which proved fatal. On his return to Kingston his throat
was swabbed and the Diphtheria bacillus reported as present.
The result was communicated to the Medical Officer of Health for
the district. It was not until January 13th, 1912 that a negative
result was obtained. As already indicated only one case occurred
in a child attending this school who was not in the infected class.
The last case notified in connection with this outbreak was on
Nov. 21.
The outbreak at St. Luke's Infants' School ran almost simultaneously.
On October 31st a case of Diphtheria was notified,
followed almost directly by a registration of death. This family,
after the house was disinfected, removed to another street where a
secondary case was notified in a child not of school age on Dec. 5.
The next fatal case died on November 1st—notified October 24th
—was secondary to a case notified on October 2lst. Nine further
cases occurred in children attending this school. This school has
not separate rooms for all classes, three classes being taught in a
large hall separated by movable curtains. All the children who
complained of sore throat were inspected and several swabbings
taken with negative results. A case was notified from Great