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A married man was notified of Scarlet Fever on December 5th,
1907, and discharged from the Hospital on January 17th, 1908. On
his discharge from Hospital, he and his wife and child moved from
the house in which he contracted the disease. He was visited
occasionally by an elder sister who fell with the disease on May 22nd,
1908. This sister lived with her parents and the father, mother,
sister and servant were the only occupants of the house. No
connection with any other case of Scarlet Fever could be traced.
H. H. was notified of Scarier Fever on July 18th, 1907. The
family then lived at St. Alban's Avenue, but moved from there
towards the end of the year. In July, 1908, the brother wasnotified,
and no other cases had occurred in the school where he attended.
In one sense the following case is more interesting still. J. C.,
a lodger, contracted Scarlet Fever in September, 1906. He married
his landlady's daughter and went to live in another part of the
district, and two teachers lodged in his house. One of the teachers
contracted the disease in October, 1907, though there was a definite
history that she had had the disease in her childhood. It may be
objected that this teacher would come in contact with children and
thus rendered liable to contract the disease, but in March, 1908,
J. C.'s sister-in-law (aged 26) was notified of the disease, and in the
latter case, no other source of infection could be traced.
These three cases have not been included in the 16 instances
where Scarlet Fever had recurred after a prolonged period. The 16
only include those where the disease had recurred in the same house.
A case occurred in the Cottage Hospital during the year, which
illustrates the possibility of a person harbouring the infection in
their tissues and after some time becoming the source of their own
infection. On February 1st, two cases of Scarlet Fever were
notified from the Cottage Hospital. One of these, D. M., was a
patient who had contracted the disease outside, and the second was
a nurse. Both were removed to the Isolation Hospital. In the bed
next to D. M. was a boy, W. K., who had fractured his leg. On
March 22nd, seven weeks after the removal of the last case, W. K.
was notified of Scarlet Fever. Inquiries were made, and no visitors
at the Cottage Hospital could be suspected of harbouring infection.
The nurse had not been discharged from the Isolation Hospital,