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1902]
92
SCARLET FEVER.
The notifications of Scarlet Fever numbered 1,372, or 299 below the
corrected average of ten years.
These cases represented an attack-rate of 3.99 per 1,000 inhabitants,
compared with a mean decennial attack-rate of 4.97 per 1,000.
The local rate was slightly higher than that of the County of London,
in which it was 3.91 per 1,000, and also of the Encircling Districts, in which
it was 3.93. In St. Pancras the attack-rate was 5.08, in Hackney 3.91, in
Stoke Newington 3.85, in Finsbury 3.83, in Hornsey 3.44, and in Shoreditch
2.08.
Hospital Isolation.—1,372, or 84.8 per cent., out of the total number
of cases were isolated in hospitals, leaving only 208 to be treated at home.
It is most gratifying to find that the people so readily allow their children
to be taken away when suffering from Scarlet Fever, because it is a disease
in which the infection clings to the patient for many weeks, during which
time he is a danger to every person who approaches him, while on the other
hand retention at home is a serious draw-back to his speedy recovery
for he must necessarily be confined to a room, or at all events to
a portion of the house, and therefore unable to enjoy the pleasures of fresh
air, or a short walk, during his long period of convalescence, advantages
which the cases treated in hospital possess.
Fatality.—The 40 deaths among all cases represent a fatality of only
2.9 per cent. Among the hospital cases it was 3.0, and among the home cases
2.4 per cent.