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28
Acting upon the advice of the Medical Officer of Health
the school was closed for a fortnight and information given to
each parent as to the reason. The premises were then
disinfected and cleansed.
One of the boys, the specimen from whom contained
diphtheria bacilli, lived at St. Margarets, and the medical practitioner
to the family informed me that although the boy was
apparently well he had acted upon my suggestion and he had
isolated him in a room with a servant to look after him.
Within a short period the servant developed diphtheria and
the boy paralysis of the soft palate. Both these cases where
then removed to Mogden Isolation Hospital.
There are several points of interest in connection with
this slight outbreak.
1. No decided clinical evidence of diphtheria, i.e. a few year&
ago sucli cases would have been classed as " simple sore
throat.'
2. In not one of the first five cases could a decided opinion
be given as to the nature of the complaint until a
bacterioscopic investigation had taken place.
3. How readily disease may be spread into different districts
from a mild and unrecognised case or cases.
Many years ago, before the period of bacteriological research,
the late Sir Richard Thorne Thorne, then Medical
Officer to the Local Government Board, called attention to the
frequency with which outbreaks of diphtheria in Board Schools
were preceded by several cases of " simple sore throat."