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41
Scarlet Fever.
Scarlet Fever was somewhat prevalent during 1911.
The number of cases notified being 153, as compared with 89
during the year 1910. The largest number of notifications
was received in September. A reference to Chart II. will shew
that up to about the first week in September the number of
cases notified per week did not fluctuate much. During the
week ending September 16th eight cases were notified in
North Finchley, and a second crop of 14 during the following
week. From this time onwards this number kept well above
the normal until December 9th.
The type of the disease was unusually mild, as will be
seen by the fact that out of the whole number of cases notified
not a single death occurred. During the outbreak the Schools
were almost daily visited by the Medical Officer of Health or
the School Nurse, and owing to the excellent way in which
the Teachers and Attendance Officers co-operated in the matter
of exclusion of children from infected houses and of children
showing any suspicious symptom of the disease, the necessity
for school closure did not arise.
Scarlet Fever is often a most difficult disease to control
in towns, and where the type is a mild one the difficulty increases.
In these mild cases the patient is often not appreciably
ill, perhaps not even "out of sorts"—the rash may be so
slight or evanescent as to be entirely overlooked, and the case
is only discovered (if discovered at all) when "peeling" has
commenced. In the interval the patient may have been the
means of infecting his associates. In order to detect any such
"missed" case, the Teachers were most alert, and rendered
valuable assistance in controlling the disease.
The 153 cases represent infection in 127 houses.
The cases removed to hospital were 112, equal to about
75 per cent. of the cases notified.