[Report 1922] / Medical Officer of Health, Barnsley (Union) R.D.C.

Barnsley (England : Unitary authority). Rural District Council.

Date:: 1922

Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1922] / Medical Officer of Health, Barnsley (Union) R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Diagbam of the Cases. X 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 ‘ I 18 Of these 1, 2, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 18 were all isolated, and the earlier cases were all proved experimentally in London to have been Small-pox. 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 had recovered so as to be free from infection before it was found that they had had Small-pox. Seventeen was thought not to be Small-pox till 18 was notified. Of the 18 cases 12 were in unvaccinated children attending Woolley Village School, two were unvaccinated young persons known to have been in contact (12 days before onset) with previous cases, four were in adults no longer fully protected by vaccination in infancy, who had also been in close contact with previous cases. In every case isolated it was found that the disease protected the patient against vaccination, while there were no cases among children who had been vaccinated in infancy. In search of the original case I investigated the history of three children attending Woolley Village School, who, being unvaccinated in infancy, had failed “to take’’ on being vaccinated. There were only three of these. One living at Haigh Lane had marks on his hands which might be interpreted as due to mild Small-pox, and he was subject to sick headaches, so that the initial attack might readily have been misinterpreted, while the mildness of the symptoms after the initial attack is one of the featui’es of the outbreak. Of the other two, neither had been observed to be ill at all, and neither showed the slightest scar or blemish. One of them had, however, come into the district from Nottingham at the end of last February at a time when Small-pox was prevalent in Nottingham, though not near his Nottingham home. A possible explanation of our outbreak might be that the boy from Nottingham brought some infected article into the district and showed it to the Haigh Lane boy at school, who was probably infectious at the right time to give the disease to six others of his school mates.