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49
INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
There has been no serious outbreak of infectious disease during the year.
Scarlet fever and diphtheria are still diminishing; mumps and chicken pox died
down in the earlier months; whilst localised outbreaks of measles and German
measles occurred in the later months. Respiratory complaints, including
influenza, have not been prevalent; whilst whooping cough has furnished
comparatively few cases during the year.
Contacts of scarlet fever are excluded a fortnight; contacts of diphtheria
are promptly swabbed and usually get back to school with the loss of five or six
sessions at the most. The contacts of measles and whooping cough are
excluded from the infant departments alone.
Efforts are made to get into touch with cases of measles as quickly as
possible by the school nurses, as it is then the greatest good can be done.
Visits by the school nurses for these infectious complaints were as follows:—
Measles 307
Mumps 17
Whooping cough 106
Chicken pox 64
No action was taken during the year under Art. 57 or 45 (b) of the Code.
The exclusion of individual children is made under Art. 53 (b).
FOLLOWING-UP.
Defects found during the routine inspection are entered in a special book
for each Department, and kept on the school premises. Cards for the same
children are kept at the School Clinic. Thus the teachers have a list of the
defects, and it is readily noticed when these defective children fail to come to
the Clinic for treatment. The following-up include all such cases; those who
drop treatment before being cured: special cases where a home visit is deemed
necessary, etc.
The total number of visits paid to the home under this heading is 1,862.
MEDICAL TREATMENT.
Minor Ailments.—Dr. Strong attends the School Clinic four mornings
a week, whilst on the other two mornings, the nurses carry out treatment
already ordered.