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6
stamped out in the district until we have better means of
dealing with it.
In many cases, medical men have not been called in until
desquamation has begun, and in two or three instances
children have been attending schools when in the peeling
stage. A few successful prosecutions would go a good way
towards making parents more careful; but the difficulty is to
prove guilty knowledge.
In all cases where cases have occurred among the
children attending school, the masters and mistresses have
been informed, and the other children in the houses in which
the cases have occurred have been kept from school.
Thirty cases were notified during the year, and three
deaths registered; against 37 in the preceding year, and 10
deaths. A great many of these cases were imported from
other districts. All the cases were treated in their own homes,
as there is no provision for the treatment of this disease at
the Infectious Diseases Hospital.
The first fatal case of diphtheria occurred at Hardy Eoad
in January—a man aged 26 years; this was an imported case.
The next fatal case occurred in October, at Elmore
Terrace, South Eoad, and was that of a child aged 4 years.
An examination of the premises proved them to be in a very
insanitary condition, a .d as this group of houses had a
previous bad history, the necessary steps were taken to
examine the whole of the houses (16 in number). The
examination revealed a shocking state of affairs; the drains
had no fall, were full of solid sewage, and had probably been
blocked for months ; the liquid matter had escaped through
the joints and saturated the surrounding earth; all the flushing
boxes were out of order, and most of the closet pans were
cracked or broken. New drains and sanitary fittings are being
provided for all these houses.