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6
Scarlet Fever.— Notifications respecting 229 persons were
received during the year, representing an attack rate of 1.5, being the
highest since 1897 when the rate was 5.5, and the highest number
of cases notified in any year since 1893, when the number was 294,
and the attack rate 8.4 per thousand inhabitants.
For the six years prior to 1906 the number of notifications yearly
were very uniform, but signs presented themselves in the autumn of
1905 of a probable large increase during the coming year. In
January, 20 cases occurred, and from 10 to 19 monthly to September,
reaching 42 in October, declining to 36 in November and 21 in
December.
This increased number of Scarlet Fever cases was not confined
to Wimbledon but present throughout the Metropolis, the counties of
Surrey and Kent and the south of England.
In September the reserve Iron Hospital was brought into use fot
Scarlet Fever patients, as was also the Diphtheria pavilion (the
district fortunately being free from Diphtheria at the time). The
question as to what should be done with future cases should more
occur than could be treated in the above premises was considered,
and the following methods taken into account:— (1) the provision of
tents, as was done in 1893; (2) the provision of temporary wooden
pavilions; (3) the sending of surplus cases to some other Authority's
hospital, or nursing at home.
I reported that the tents, from every point of view, both of the
authority and the patients, in the light of the experience of 1892 and
1893 and especially as winter was approaching, were unsatisfactory.
I was against the provision of wooden pavilions on account of the risk
from fire, and recommended that arrangements if possible should be
made with some other Authority for the reception of a number of
patients, and in exceptional circumstances, such as where several
cases occurred at one time in a house, of the sending in of a nurse.
These recommendations the Committee agreed to.
Through the courtesy and kindness of Dr. Meredith Richards,
the Medical Officer of Health for the County Borough of Croydon,
arrangements were made for a limited number of Scarlet Fever
and Diphtheria patients being received into hospitals of that
Corporation.
The early symptoms of many of the cases were marked by the