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Scarlet Fever.
As in 1947, a decrease occurred in the number of notified cases of
Scarlet Fever while the disease continued to be very mild in character.
Of the 62 known cases 48 were children attending schools in or near the
District and 11 were under school age, three of them contracting it from
their older brothers or sisters.
Most of the school cases were apparently unconnected, no less than
27 schools being involved, 22 having single cases from this District and
the others 2, 3, 4, 5 and 13 respectively. Only in the school with most
case's was there evidence of direct infection between the children and this
was chiefly due to the very mild nature of the infection causing unsuspected
or incorrectly diagnosed cases to be allowed to attend the school in the
early stages of the outbreak.
In four instances the multiple cases in a house resulted from home
contact ; in one case a pre-school child infected two school children and
in the other three cases, a school child, a toddler, and, on one occasion,
two pre-school children were infected by another school child. Thirtyfour
of the cases were treated at home and 28 in hospital, all but two in the
Wandle Valley Isolation Hospital. Most of the former occurred after
5th July, when an attempt was made to limit admissions to complicated
cases only. The result on the whole was fairly satisfactory. In 22 cases
nursed at home there were other children in the house, yet in only 4 of
these did secondary cases occur, including the one in which the nature of
the disease had not been recognised before the infection spread. The
policy of admitting only physically or socially complicated cases from the
District appears to be justifiable while this disease remains as mild as at
present, especially if at the time there is a shortage of hospital beds, but
there would appear to be justification for considering the admission of an
uncomplicated case when a bed is available and a younger child or a public
food handler is apparently uninfected in the home.
No deaths and but^few complications were caused by this disease
during the year.
Erysipelas.
Eight cases of erysipelas were notified during the year, this being
three more than in 1947, but two of the notifications concerned the same
person, being received six months apart. All the cases were adults and
none appeared to be connected with another known case. One only
was admitted to hospital and all recovered.
Puerperal Pyrexia.
Two cases were notified, both in December, while a third resident
was also affected following her confinement in a North London hospital
that month. Both the notified cases were admitted to hospital where they
recovered.
Enteric Fever.
No cases of typhoid fever and only two of para-typhoid fever were
notified. Investigations following one of these showed that the particular
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