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36
CEREBRO-SPINAL FEVER.
Early in February, 1906, a resident at an hotel in the City was attacked
with an illness that necessitated his immediate removal to hospital for treatment.
The patient became rapidly worse, and died within forty-eight hours
of the attack. The disease was diagnosed as one of purpura hemorrhagica,
though a subsequent examination showed that the spinal fluid swarmed with the
meningococcus of Weichselbaum, but the course of the disease was so rapid
there had been no time for the development of the characteristic phenomena.
The body was cremated and all necessary precautions taken with regard to
disinfection. This case is interesting as showing that sporadic cases of Cerebrospinal
Fever that are generally expected to be mild in character may assume
a foudroyant type, of which the case in question was a typical example.
A full account of this case was contributed to the "Lancet" of 28th April,
1906, p. 1,172, by Dr. F. W. Andrewes, Pathologist and Lecturer on Pathology
at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. It is also referred to by Dr. M. H.
Gordon in a Report to the Local Government Board, dated 18th February of
this year, on the " Micrococcus of epidemic cerebro-spinal meningitis and its
identification."
LAUNDRIES AND INFECTED ARTICLES OF CLOTHING.
In March last the Islington Public Health Committee invited the opinion
of the Corporation with regard to the provisions of Section 68 (c) of the
Public Health (London) Act, 1891, which prohibits, under penalty, the
removal, without previous disinfection, of infected articles to laundries.
This provision, however, only extends to articles infected by a "dangerous
infectious disease," as defined by Section 55 (8) of that Act, and does
not include other non-notifiable disorders of a highly infectious nature, and
articles therefore infected with such disease may be, and frequently are, sent
to laundries without any precautions.
It was also pointed out that several provincial towns had obtained powers
for enforcing disinfection before transmission to laundries of articles that had
been exposed to any infectious disease, and suggested that what was beneficial
for other places would be equally so for London. The Committee concurred
in these views, and the Islington Authorities were informed that the Corporation
also advocated general legislation in the direction indicated.