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At the beginning of the year there were 171 patients in residence,
1,343 were admitted during the year, making a total of
1,514 under treatment. Of these, 1,269 were discharged as recovered,
63 died, and 182 remained under treatment at the end of
the year.
Table I. shows the admissions and deaths for each month of
the year, and in Table II. there is shown the annual admissions
and deaths from the principal infectious diseases since the Hospital
was opened.
Scarlet Fever.
The total number of cases under treatment was 625. Of
these, 535 were discharged recovered, 4 died, and 86 remained
under treatment at the end of the year.
The majority of the cases were very mild, and many of them
had passed the acute stage of the illness when they came into
Hospital. The average duration of illness of all the cases on admission
was 4.3 days. In 75 cases, 14 per cent, of the admissions,
there was no sign of a rash on the day of admission, and 29 of
these showed no desquamation during their period of residence.
The diagnosis in these cases remained doubtful, and 3 of them
contracted the infection in the wards. Three other patients, who
had a rash on admission and desquamated, suffered a relapse during
their fourth week of illness.
No desquamation was detected in 52 cases in which the diagnosis
was confirmed on admission by the presence of a definite
scarlatiniform rash and other typical signs of the disease. These
cases ran a mild uncomplicated course. They did not receive
antitoxin.
Eighty-five of the more severe cases which were admitted
within the first three days of illness received an intramuscular injection
of scarlatinal antitoxin. The dosage varied from 10 c.c.
to 30 c.c., the average being 16 c.c. The antitoxin did not protect
these cases from complications. The incidence of such affections
as otorrhoea, adenitis, albuminuria and nephritis was as high
among these patients as among the untreated cases.