View report page

11
Thus there was an increase of 213 notifications
over those of the previous year. In every instance of
a notifiable affection, a visit is immediately paid to the
dwellilngs of the patients, and instructions are given
appropriate to each case with regard to removal to
Hospital, isolation, and advice concerning contacts.
Very many cases are due to direct infection from an
earlier one, and a considerable number of "missed
cases "were discovered.
The type of the disease is usually so benign that
many of the children are considered by their parents to
be merely suffering from a "little cold and sore
throat," and only when desquamation has set in are
parents enlightened as to the disease, or by the occurrence
of another case in the family. In the early stage
of the outbreak there was reason to infer a particular
class in an infants' school was a centre of infection,
but its closure for a short time proved successful, and
no further cases were traced to that source. The class
rooms were disinfected by Formalin spraying, as is
the invariable practice with regard to infected dwellings.
I am quite satisfied that school aggregation
had little, if anything, to do with disseminating the
disease. Other adjoining districts have been largely
affected as is, or has been, more or less, the case
throughout the country, and considering our large
population, I do not think we have exceptionally suffered.
The greatest number of these Scarlatina cases
were admitted to the Isolation Hospital, with two
fatal results, and the majority of the Diphtheria
patients received treatment in the same institution with
happily only one fatality. The Poliomyelitis case
arose in a family who were staying at an East Coast
watering place, and was soon brought home to a large
house on Ealing Common, and has happily recovered,
and no further case ensued.
Isolation Hospital.
This Hospital has proved of excellent service
during the Scarlatina outbreak, but at times the