View report page

31
In three of the above cases the circumstances in which the
disease recurred suggest some connection with incomplete
disinfection.
G. D. was notified on October 27th and removed to Hospital on
the same day. At the end of six weeks the mother was in the usual
way informed that the patient was ready for discharge, but after the
mother was informed, the glands of the neck became slightly
enlarged and he was not discharged. On December 15th, the two
other children in the house were notified as suffering from Scarlet
Fever.
A somewhat similar case was that of J. W. The two brothers
T. W. and W. W. were notified on March 24th, and removed to
Hospital on the same day. On account of a nasal discharge, they
were kept in the Hospital for a couple of weeks after the mother had
been informed that they were ready to go home. They were
ultimately discharged on June 20th, but J. W. referred to above,
was notified as suffering from the disease on June 11th.
In the third case V.B. was removed to Hospital on May 15th,
and discharged on the afternoon of June 27th. The child did not
arrive home until 2 p.m , and did not come in contact with her
brother, J.B. until tea-time, when he came into the house complaining
of a sore throat. The same evening he developed a rash.
These three cases suggest the possibility of an incomplete disinfection.
The result of disinfection after Scarlet Fever is rendered,
to some extent, uncertain, because the specific germ causing the
disease has not been isolated. It is quite as important to know
what to disinfect as how to disinfect. Until quite recently, it was
held that Scarlet Fever was not infectious "until desquamation had
set in, and this theory has taken deep root in the mind of the public.
Even now the possibility of infection before the rash has appeared is
but seldom borne in mind, and it can easily be understood how
articles exposed to infection in the early stage of the illness, can be
overlooked and not handed up for disinfection. Apart from this,
some of the public look upon disinfection as a fetish, and it is not
surprising that some of the more expensive articles are occasionally
put aside, before the sanitary authorities arrive to disinfect. These
are taken out on the receipt of an intimation that the patient is ready