HH62/2/STIRLI/53

Transcription

[Page] 52

had the certificate forms addressed to me under cover to Mr.
McKerchar, so that they went directly to him. He was furnished
with a book of report forms on which to note the particulars
regarding each case. These forms include statements as to school
and Sunday school attended, milk supply, water supply, ventila-
tion, drainage, number of rooms, total inmates, children under
fourteen, sanitary defects, steps taken, &c. The result of the
arrangement has been that Mr. McKerchar has visited nearly
every case on the day immediately following the receipt of the
notice, and that from his reports I am able to judge whether
anything further need be done. It is a part of the routine pro-
cedure to send intimation to the teacher of the school attended by
children from infected houses. Disinfectants are supplied where
necessary, and fumigation of the house is carried out after the
patient has become non-infectious. Mr. McKerchar has also in
every case visited and examined the dairies from which the infected
houses have received their milk supply, and has indeed carried out
the work connected with infectious diseases in the same careful
and assiduous fashion that has characterised him in all his other
duties.
The total cases certified up till December 31st have been 57.
Of scarlet fever there were 33 cases, of diphtheria 5, of enteric
fever 11, and of erysipelas 8.
In St. Ninians Parish there were 20 cases in all, of which 18
were scarlet fever and 2 erysipelas.
Scarlatina. - The first scarlet fever case was notified on 17th
June from Douglas Terrace. There was ample convenience for
isolation. The next was in Old Town, Bannockburn, and the
infection had apparently been brought from Stirling. On the
same date a man was certified in Cambusbarron, in a house of two
apartments. There were in the house two babies a few weeks
old. One was taken in charge by a relative, and neither became
infected. Another case was intimated from Cambusbarron in a
family related to the previous case, from which the infection
appeared to have come. A third occurred in the same village a
week afterwards.
On 12th October a case was certified from Milton, which
revealed a focus of disease, involving five persons in all. A girl
had returned home from Stirling after having been ill there from

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a surgical affection. During the last few days of her stay she had
complained of a sore throat, but no specific disease had been
diagnosed. In the first fortnight after her return she was
out of doors, mingling with the children in the neighbourhood.
At the end of that time it became evident that she had had
scarlet fever, and her kidneys became affected. Three of the
children in the locality, including a brother of the patient's, were
infected from her, and after a time a sister who came on a visit from
Bannockburn was also seized. One of these cases was at a dairy
farm, but as the premises admitted of the patient's being thoroughly
isolated, removal to hospital did not become necessary, the dairy
business being at the same time put in charge of people not
residing on the farm.
On November 21st two cases were certified in Bannockburn.
One was at a small dairy, but there was complete disconnection
between the dwelling-house and the byre and milk-store, and the
same course was followed as at Milton, a non-resident taking entire
charge of the milk business, and having no communication with
the dwelling. It would certainly, however, be much more con-
venient, and afford greater security against the spread of disease,
if such cases were removed to hospital. The distance to Falkirk
hospital was in this instance the deterring influence, and as no
dairy regulations were in force, compulsion could not be resorted
to. Fortunately, as a matter of fact, the disease did not extend
from either of the dairies. Another case was intimated from
Bannockburn four days later, but the milk was from a different
source. This attack, indeed, occurred in the same tenement as the
other of the two above mentioned as having been certified on
November 21st. There appeared to have been some delay in
intimating the former case, and precautionary measures may not
have been taken sufficiently early. Just at the end of the year
two more cases of scarlet fever occurred in a house in Tait's
close, Bannockburn, and another at Old Bridge, Bannockburn.
The attacks of erysipelas were both in the village of Cambus-
barron. They were unconnected with each other.
Dunipace Parish. - A case of diphtheria was certified on 24th
August at Rosebank. The patient was a child who had been
removed a few days before from a house in Denny burgh, where a
fatal case had just previously occurred.