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39
There were, therefore, 19 return outbreaks of scarlet fever, which means that
19 houses were affected.
In 17 of these the return-case or cases were in the same family as the
infecting (?) case, and in 2 in a different family in the same house.
The cases are classified below according to the number of days that elapsed
between the return of the infecting (?) case and the onset of illness of the
return-case : —
2 days 1 11 days 2 18 days . . 1
4 „ 1 12 „ 1 20 1
5 ,, 3 13 ,, 1 22 ,, 1
6 „ 2 14 „ 1 24 „ 1
7 „ 1 15 „ 1 25 „ 1
Six of the infecting (?) cases had rhinitis subsequently to their return from
hospital (of which 1 also had desquamation), one otorrhœa, and one boils subsequently
to their return. (All the infecting (?) cases were not examined, and
therefore there may have been others with discharges or other infectious
conditions.)
In addition to the above cases there were 5 cases of scarlet fever occurring
more than 4 weeks and less than 8 weeks after the return of a former case to
the same house. Three of these were in the same houses as 3 of the 27 return
cases considered above, and the other 4 were in separate houses.
One case of scarlet fever occurred 24 days after the return home from
hospital of a case of diphtheria in the same family.
There was no evidence of any spread of scarlet fever through infected milk
supplies during the year.
Outbreaks of Scarlet Fever in intitutions.
At the Orphan Working School, Maitland Park, in continuation of the outbreak
of 1914 there were 5 cases of scarlet fever (and 6 of diphtheria) in the
first five months of 1915. Since then the school has been free from these
diseases. There are no other outbreaks in institutions to record.
DIPHTHERIA.
446 St. Pancras (civil) patients were notified during 1915 as suffering from
diphtheria or membranous croup. This figure includes St. Pancras cases
wrongly notified to medical officers of health of other authorities and transmitted
to St. Pancras, and excludes 24 cases notified to this authority, but
belonging to other districts.
Of the 446 cases notified 65 were afterwards found not to be suffering from
diphtheria, 63 by the Medical Superintendents of the Metropolitan Asylums
Board hospitals, and 2 by other medical practitioners.
This gives the net number of cases of diphtheria notified during the year as
381, equal to an incidence rate of 1.7 per 1.000 population, and 1.9 per 1000
civil population (see page 9.)
The number of deaths from diphtheria certified during the year was 24,