SCARLET FEVER IN DUNEDIN

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11481, 14 January 1903, Page 8

SCARLET FEVER IN DUNEDIN

(special to "the. peess.")

* DUNEDIN, January 13. Three scarlet fever patients were sent to the fever hospital this morning. Within the next day or two room will be provided for from 30 to 35 patients. One hundred pairs of blankets have been purchased by the Health Department from the Defence Department, this being some of the bedding utilised by the quarantined troopers from the Britannic and Orient troopships. A report compiled recently for the Dimedin health department in the matter of tli'3 scarlet fever epidemic as affecting ths attendance of schools, says the " Otago Daily Times," shows thai in eeven oi the city public schools the average attendance at the end of November was 89 per cent., wliiie the average for the first fortnight of December was 83 per cent. In the Roman Catholic schools (tour), for the corresponding periods the average attendance was 85 per cent, and 73 per cent. — a difference of 10 per cent., as against 6 i«r cent, in the State schools. The report puts emphasis on the fact that the Catholic schools are not State supported, and therefore not dependent on the average attendance for the payment of teachers, and their low average was attributed to the prompt dismissal of any child with symptoms of incipient sickna«e, serious Cautions to the children to remain at home should theie l>o any sickness in the family, in-u-eased vigilant*: in the matter of cleanliness, and the frte use of disinfectants, not practised in the public schools.