A review of outbreaks of infectious disease in schools in England and Wales 1979–88

Abstract

SUMMARYIn this review of 66 outbreaks of infectious disease in schools in England and Wales between 1979–88, 27 were reported from independent and 39 from maintained schools. Altogether, over 8000 children and nearly 500 adults were affected. Most of the outbreaks investigated were due to gastrointestinal infections which affected about 5000 children; respiratory infections affected a further 2000 children. Fifty-two children and seven adults were admitted to hospital and one child with measles died. Vaccination policies and use of immunoglobulin for control and prevention of outbreaks in schools have been discussed.

Children's experiences of school toilets present a risk to their physical and psychological health

“…In both centres children talked negatively and graphically about school toilets (see Appendix ) and many children avoid using them. At the beginning of the last decade previous studies described the dirty state of school toilets (Jewkes & O’Connor 1990; Joseph et al . 1990; Rajaratnam et al .…”

“…Previous literature about school toilets concentrated on the risk of infectious disease, commenting on the lack of basic cleanliness and the absence of health education material (Jewkes & O’Connor 1990; Joseph et al . 1990; Rajaratnam et al .…”

Common acute childhood infections and appendicitis: a historical study of statistical association in 27 English public boarding schools, 1930–1934

“…The present analysis has drawn on a classic epidemiological data-set, originally assembled by Major Greenwood and colleagues of the MRC School Epidemics Committee in the 1930s, to examine the association of sample infectious diseases and acute appendicitis in the institutional setting of 27 English public boarding schools. While epidemiological aspects of the school environment are considered elsewhere [24,36], we note here that our selection of institution was predicated on the existence of large and well-defined aggregates of children and adolescents for whom term-time population mixing was largely restricted to the close confines of the school. The MRC Committee deemed the pupils to be drawn from broadly comparable (' middle ' and 'upper-middle ' class) socio-economic backgrounds while, by virtue of their age and medical histories, they were regarded as highly susceptible to common acute childhood infections and other afflictions (including appendicitis) at the time of school entry [24,25].…”

Exposure to school children as a risk factor in a community outbreak of hepatitis A in young adults: a case control study

“…Identified risk factors for infection in the United Kingdom include household contact with another diagnosed case, travel abroad, sharing a household with a child aged 3-10 years, and consumption of shellfish harvested from sewage-polluted waters [2,3]. Outbreaks occur in nurseries [4], infant schools [5] and institutions for the mentally handicapped [6,7], among intravenous drug users [8][9][10][11], men who have sex with men [12][13][14][15][16], and rarely as a result of food contamination [1,[17][18][19] and public swimming-pool use [20].…”