Dr. Page's report to the Local Government Board on recent prevalences of scarlatina at Donington and Moulton, in the Spalding rural sanitary district, in relation to school attendance / [David Page].

  • Page, David, M.D.
Date:
[1883]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Page's report to the Local Government Board on recent prevalences of scarlatina at Donington and Moulton, in the Spalding rural sanitary district, in relation to school attendance / [David Page]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Inquiry there showed that a child named Hayes had been previously ill for about a week with mild but regular scarlatina, three other children of the same family meanwhile going to the Board School. Hitchcock was uncle to these children, and had habitually visited the house when recovering from his throat illness. During the week ending November 28th, a third family, Thorpe, was attacked, the earliest case being a child of six years attending the Board School. Other members of this family were successively attacked. Then a fourth family, named King, became affected, the first case in this instance being a boy of five, also attending the Board School. Four other persons in this family were successively attacked within the next 10 days, including the father, two children, aged 1^ and 3 years, and a servant girl. These three families, Hayes, Thorpe, and King, live near to each other, and the children might possibly have caught infection in play. On December 4th, Dr. England, hearing of illness in other households, visited the school, and, obtaining a list of absent children, made inquiry regarding each case. Between that date and December 15th five fresh households were affected in different parts of the village, in each of which the first attack was of a child going to the Board School.- The school was closed on December 15th at Dr. England’s recommendation. Within the next day or two two other households were attacked, the first case iD each being a child who had been going up to day of closure to the Board School. During the interval of closure two families, having no relation with the schools, were invaded, to one of which special interest attaches. The Assistant Mistress of the Board School went, upon the breaking up, to her brother’s house, five miles from Moulton; within the same week two of his children, aged two and four years, were laid up with scarlatina. The farmhouse is perfectly isolated, and the inmates had been exposed to no other risks of infection. The Assistant Mistress had not herself suffered from any slight attack. Had she brought infection in her clothes ? In the other instance two of the inhabitants of the Vicarage were attacked ; first, a maid-servant on January 12th, and, after an interval of some days, a little daughter of the Vicar. There were possibilities of entrance of infection into the house through the groom, who by this time had three children convalescent from the fever. In this outbreak none of the Grammar School boys were attacked, and only three boys belonging to the Lower Endowed School (Thorpe, Simpson, and another) in each of whose families earlier attacks had occurred. 22. Evidence of other modes of dissemination than that of school assemblage, consequent upon introduction of infection by the Hayes’ children, there was none. Milk-supply was not implicated. 23. The school was re-opened on January 8th under precautions for the exclusion of children from infected households. No fresh outbreak has since occurred. Summary. 24. Reviewing the results arrived at in the course of the above inquiries into scarlatinal prevalence in rural districts, the following conclusions, illustrative of, and confirming previous experience, may be submitted:— First. That in relation to the customary means of scarlatinal spread by personal intercourse, elementary schools constitute a frequent and most effective agency. Secondly. That the opportunities of school attendance of infected children, or of children belonging to infected families, are not, in large measure, efficiently controlled by existing local sanitary administration. Thirdly. That a system of notification of diseases occurring in connexion with children attending such schools alone offers a hopeful solution of this difficulty, provided also that the Local Authority has made provision of those other measures which are peculiarly the essentials of effective action against the spread of infection, i.e., means of isolation and of efficient disinfection. February 26th, 1883. David Page.