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Return Cases.
In 24 instances the disease occurred within 7 days
of the return of another member from a Hospital after
a similar attack. The return cases are too numerous to be
accounted for by mere coincidence; and though, in some cases,
it is quite possible that the infection was conveyed by some
article of clothing which had been worn by the first patient
at the commencement of the illness, and put away without
being disinfected, and on his return again brought into use,
probably in the majority of instances the infection was directly
conveyed by the returning patient. That a certain number
of such cases should occur seems to be unavoidable, for their
occurrence in a certain proportion is universal wherever
Hospital isolation is practiced.
It must be remembered that the virus seems sometimes
to be suspended in the person, probably in the mucous
membrane of the throat after its activity in the tissues has
ceased, and moreover that recrudescence of the disease,
especially recurrent sore throat, may occur, and it is doubtful
how late such true recrudescences may take place, and renew
the infective condition of the patient.
It would be well if a warning card were sent out with each
discharged patient, urging the desirability of maintaining a
certain degree of isolation for at least a fortnight after the