Epidemic Catarrhal Jaundice in School Children

Abstract

SIR,-It was interesting to read the account in the Journial of October 9 (p. 703) by Dr. B. Sergeant of the epidemic in Gateshead. In the part of Surrey where I live, though we have had no epidemic for some years, there are two village schools where there are nearly always one or two families affected. Unlike Dr. Sergeant, we find it usual for more than one member of the family to be affected, and it is the rule of the local education authority, the Surrey County Council, to exclude home contacts for three weeks; it would appear that this period is too short, but in practice there seems to be little tendency for further cases to occur in the school. Local feeling would blame the grey squirrels for the infections, but this may be merely little England bias. This spring, in one of the villages, a boy aged 12, who attended a central school four miles away, developed jaundice ; a sister (8) and a brother (6) caught it after intervals of four and three weeks respectively; a baby of 7 months and the parents were not affected. There was no history of contact in or out of school with another case, but a Great Dane, a frequent companion of the children, had been treated for jaundice three or four weeks before the elder boy became ill. If there is to be any advance in our knowledge of this disease it will be from the observations of general practitioners and school medical officers, as only very rarely do these patients enter a hospital ; they usually are treated at home, recovering after one visit from the family doctor, or even without it.-I am, etc., Chaldon, Surrey, Oct. 10. G. D. PIRRIE.