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6
Between September 16th and October 4th eleven cases
occurred amongst the scholars of Classes 1 and 2 of the Infants'
Department of the Queen's Road Schools, and, with a view to preventing
the spread of the disease, it was thought advisable to close
this section for two weeks, during which time the class rooms,
passages, cloak rooms and lavatories were thoroughly disinfected.
On September 27th the School Attendance Officer had occasion
to visit a certain house as to the non-attendance of a boy at Holy
Trinity Schools, the period for which he had been detained from
school owing to a supposed attack of Measles having expired. He
was informed by a person at the house that the boy had had Scarlet
Fever, he accordingly reported this to the Sanitary Department,
Mr. Johnson at once visited the house, and having ascertained that
no doctor was in attendance, asked to see the boy, who at that
moment came in from the street and was found to be peeling very
profusely. The Inspector asked the parent to call in a doctor; she
reluctantly did so. Later in the day a notification was received
stating that the boy was suffering from Scarlet Fever. He was
immediately removed to the Isolation Hospital, and the room, bedding,
etc., disinfected. The matter was reported to the Sanitary
Committee at their next meeting: they resolved that, as a warning
to others, proceedings should be instituted against the person who
wilfully exposed the boy whilst suffering from a notifiable infectious
disease. The summons was heard before the Magistrates on November
9th who were satisfied that wilful exposure had been made and
fined defendant £1.
Diphtheria
The number of notifications received was 36 against 58 in the
preceding year, the attack rate being .7 per thousand of the population
against a corresponding rate of 1.2 last year.
Unfortunately the disease was of a more malignant type, there
being 6 deaths, a case mortality of 16.6 per cent. against 6.8 per
cent. in 1903, the average for the past ten years being 15.09.
In Table C will be found this death-rate for the past ten years.
Five of the deaths occurred in the Isolation Hospital, 3 of
children who at the time of removal were almost in a state of
collapse, and one had had tracheotomy performed at home and removed
to hospital an hour after.