Mr. W.H. Power's report to the Local Government Board on diphtheria in Pirbright, and on the influence of the school there in the behaviour of the disease / [W.H. Power].

  • Power, William Henry, Sir, 1842-1916.
Date:
[1883]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr. W.H. Power's report to the Local Government Board on diphtheria in Pirbright, and on the influence of the school there in the behaviour of the disease / [W.H. Power]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/10 (page 6)
    Table III. Children at ages 3-12. Children not recently attacked at beginning of period. At School. Not at School. Uther Iversons. Periods. Pirbright School. Total not re¬ cently attacked. Newly attacked. First Cases in their Families. Secondary Cases in their Fami¬ lies. Total not re¬ cently attacked. Newly attacked. First Cases in their Families. Secondary Cases in their Fami¬ lies. Total not re¬ cently attacked. Newly attacked. First Cases in their Families. After Cases. January to 27 May. (21 weeks.') Open (closed 16 May.) 148 96 28 16 16-6 12 52 6 2 3-8 4 496 17 1 0-2 16 27 May to 8 July. (6 weeks.) Closed (reopened 27 June.) 114 ' 114 12 .9 7-8 3 479 7 2 0-4 5 8 July to 22 July. (2 weeks.) Open (closed 13 July.) 102 62 *[6] 5 3 4* 2 34 “ 0-0 472 1 1 0-2 ~ 22 July to 9 September. (7 weeks.) Closed - (reopened 28 August.) 97 ~ 97 2 2 471 F 6 3 0-6 3 9 September to 7 October. (4 weeks.) Open - (closed 26September.) 95 56 4 4 7-1 39 1 1 2-5 465 2 1 0-2 1 7 October to 11 November. (5 weeks.) Closed (reopened 6 November.) 90 90 463 4 4 • 0-8 ' 11 November to 2 December. (3 weeks.) Open (closed 21 November.) 90 48 3 2 4-1 1 42 ~ 0-0 459 4 2 0-4 2 2 December to end of De- eember. (4 weeks.) Closed 90 90 455 4 1 0-2 3 The facts of this table, in their general bearing, accord with those of Table I. so far as they admit a probability that school influence has not been the only influence causative of throat illness in Pirbright. But seemingly it has had a larger share in the throat illness, at any rate in the attack of children at later periods of the epidemic, than from Table I. appeared likely. For Table III. shows that attacks of throat illness at ages 3_12, occurring among such children first of their respective families, were in two ways related to school. In uninfected families, children of this age who at a given period were attending school, became affected by throat illness five or six times as numerously as children of the same age who at the same period were not attending school. And this was observed on every occasion when the school was open and the opportunity for comparing the two existed. While the school remained open in the early months of the year, the rate of attack in children 3-12, presumably susceptible of diphtheria but not having the disease at home, was 16-6 per cent, of those who were at school, 3’8 per cent, of those who were not. The next time the school was open, the respective rates were 4*8 and (M); the third time, 7T and 2'5; and, on the November occasion, 4T and 0-0. The numbers upon which these percentages are based are indeed small, but on the other hand the indication which they furnish is too uniform to be mistaken. Going into the facts of Table III., with the object of stating the incidence of throat illness in the given group of children at periods when the school was open in comparison with periods when it was closed, it is found that comparative statement is not to be made numerically :— The periods in question were not of similar length ; the children who stayed at home only because the school was closed, taken with the children who never went to school at all, madq up a variable which did not lend itself to examination; while the watchfulness for cases of minor throat illness, exercised by teachers when the school was open and wanting at periods of school closure, introduced a further variable that interfered with comparison of total throat illness at one and the other time. Thus during my inspec¬ tion it would happen that illnesses learnt through school records were not remembered by parents, until some school-recorded fact was brought to their recollection. Fortunately there was no example of this last kind to vitiate comparisons invited by the table which follows. * The figure 6 in brackets are children regarded for present purposes as having got infected in the preceding period of school closure, though they were taken ill while attending school at the end of June or beginning of July. Hence 6 has been subtracted from 68, and the rate for this period of school operations has been taken on the remaining 62.