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11
SCARLET FEVER.
Average number of cases each year during the last 10
years, 1895-1904, equals 78.8 cases.
80 cases were notified during the year, of which 64 were
removed to the Isolation Hospital and the others were
treated in their own homes.
The disease was of a mild type, there being only two
deaths.
As regards distribution, about 77 per cent. of the cases
occurred in the houses of the working classes. The districts
most affected were (1) the streets leading off Bromley Common,
in St. Luke's Parish, and (2) the streets in the neighbourhood
of Farwig Lane, in St. Mary's Parish.
The cases were fairly evenly distributed throughout the
year, and were not traced to milk supply or widespread
infection at school, although in our routine enquiries special
attention is always directed to these common sources of
infection.
Many of the cases were multiple, i.e., 11 houses contributed
no less than 32 cases; 5 cases at the same time were
notified from one house. The others were single cases.
It seems to be not generally known that Scarlet Fever is
as infectious in the earlier as in the later stages when the
skin is disquamating. The experience of the last few years
has shown indeed that the inflamed condition of the mucous
membrane of the throat, nose and mouth, which is often
present during the whole course of the disease, is a more