View report page

12
year and in various parts of the District. Five cases
were notified between July 16th and 21st: one was in a
girl and four in hoys. The boys were day scholars at a
private school in Teddington. At the same period two
boys residing in Hampton AVick and who attended that
school were also notified as suffering from Scarlet Fever.
As soon as I heard of the outbreak, I visited the school
and found that, in addition, a boy living at Twickenham
had also contracted the disease. All these boys had been
sitting close to one another in the schoolroom. There
could be no doubt that these cases were infected by an
undetected case which would have occurred before July
15th. On further investigation I ascertained that two
brothers of the girl, whose illness was notified on July
16th, attended that school and were absent from July
9th—14th, as they were suffering from soreness of their
throats. In both cases the illness was of such a slight
character that they were able to consult a medical man
at his own house and no heed of the matter was taken.
I examined these boys on July 26th and found them in
the peeling stage. The acute stage of the disease had
evidently been passed through without attracting special
notice. These two undetected cases were directly and
indirectly responsible for 16 others. The school was
closed on July 17th and the premises were disinfected
and cleaned. No death occurred and nearly all cases
were of a mild type. One of the cases was removed to
the Hampton Isolation Hospital, and one was sent to
the London Fever Hospital.
DIPHTHERIA.
Only five cases were notified and there was no death.
The mortality from this disease shows a great improvement,
probably due to the early administration of antidiphtheritic
serum in most cases.