[Report 1912] / Medical Officer of Health, Basingstoke R.D.C.

  • Basingstoke (England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1912] / Medical Officer of Health, Basingstoke R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    had to remove the patients to the Isolation Hospital. At one period this hospital was getting very full owing to there being an outbreak in Basingstoke at the same time. I was of the opinion that this epidemic started at Tadley early in May, and was brought there by a travelling Bair. The first cases arose in Tadley which adjoins Pamber Heath. The inhabitants of these Districts are of the ginsy type living in the small cottages. It is extremely difficult to inculcate the smallest idea’ of domestic or personal hygiene among these people. There is no doubt that manv of the children were t- suffering from scarlet fever before the first notification was sent in. Scarlet fever, nowadays, is often so mild—the little patient being out of sorts for a few days, with slight sore throat, and a rash that may or may not be noticed, goes back to school in about a week to spread the infection among the other children. No doctor is called in, and so the case is missed. I closed this school for 14 da vs in June, and on their reassembling I visited and examined all the children, O 7 sending away three doubtful cases. As more cases occurred in August, 1 closed the school again for a period wTiich, including the holidays, made eight weeks. I ordered it to be thoroughly disinfected and the books to be destroyed. All the cases were of a mild nature, and there were no deaths. One case was a mixed infection with diphtheria, but there were no more of this sort.