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22
houses, 4 cases in 7 houses, 5 cases in 3 houses and 7 cases in 1 house.
The removals to hospital numbered 209—an isolation percentage of
80.7. There were 6 deaths, giving a fatality of 2.3 per cent. of
cases notified and a death rate of 0.11 per 1,000 of the population.
The experience of 1904 regarding the extent to which missed
cases gave rise to an increased incidence of scarlet fever, has been
repeated in the past year. The histories of the cases show that
there has been nothing to connect any of them with milk infection
or other source likely to spread the disease broadcast. A few cases
arose from time to time where the infection was traced to an
undetected case attending school, but these were fortunately
discovered and removed before much mischief was done, and nothing
approaching a school epidemic has to be recorded. The majority of
the cases notified were traced to a previous case in the same family
or in that of a neighbour in which the disease occurred in so mild a
form that it was overlooked by the child's parents and was not
discovered until a doctor was called in to see another child, infected
by the first, in which the illness had assumed a more definite aspect.
In this way several of the remaining children in the family had
every opportunity of becoming infected before the occurrence of the
disease came to the notice of my department, and it is to this
circumstance chiefly that the unusual number of cases per house
noted above is to be ascribed.
The following series of 10 cases in one street, reported in the
month of August, may be quoted to illustrate the mischief resulting
from an overlooked attack. Three houses, Nos. 39, 41 and 45,
were involved, and the first case was notified from No. 39 on July
7th. On July 22nd a case was reported from No. 41, and on
visiting this house to make enquiries, another child in this family
was found to be peeling. This child was a playmate of the child at
No. 39 and had been unwell about three weeks before this date, so
that there is little doubt as to her being the common source of
infection of both these cases. The children at No. 45 were
also accustomed to play with those at No. 41 and immediately after