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44—Only two such cases occurred in connection with the
Borough Hospital during the past year.
45—Very stringent regulations have been drawn up with regard to
the discharge of patients.
46—Every case of scarlet fever is kept in two calendar months,
and as each patient is provided with complete sets of uniform
during his stay in Hospital not a particle of home clothing is either
brought into or taken out of the wards.
47— It stands to reason, however, that when a child has lived for
a considerable time in an infected atmosphere, the residual air in
his lungs must I e charged with infection, and if on his return
home he sleeps in the same room and in many instances in the
same bed with his brothers and sisters, this is gradually given off,
and thus a further dissemination is likely to occur.
48—With the idea of preventing secondary infection in this way,
a printed card is sent to the parents acquainting them of the date
and hour of the patient's discharge, requesting them to bring clean
clothing, and at the same time warning them against the above
mentioned practice, and suggesting further partial home isolation
for a fortnight.
49—It has also been occasionally ascertained that the clothes
which a patient has worn prior to removal are hidden away in
cupboards and drawers to escape disinfection. These are
brought out again on his return home, and in the event of a
recrudescence the Hospital authorities receive the blame.
50—Lastly, many of these so-called return cases turn out to be, on
further investigation, merely incidental, inasmuch as the period
which elapses between the discharge of the patient from the
Hospital and the onset of the following case does not correspond
to the incubation period of scarlet fever.
51—Bacteriological Research.—The great progress recently made
in our knowledge of the causation and treatment of diphtheria has
rendered a bacteriological laboratory an almost necessary adjunct
of a fever Hospital.