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92
A boy was admitted to hospital suffering from scarlet
fever. No typing was done at time of admission. On account
of persistent rhinorrhæa bis detention was prolonged to 60
days. He was discharged with a warning to his parents—
who were insistent on his leaving hospital—that the risk of
his infecting other members of the family was very real; but
before he was taken home both nose and throat swabs were
twice found to be free from hæmolytic streptococci.
Immediately after bis discharge there occurred in
the bouse in rapid succession four cases of Scarlet Fever. His
mother was the first victim. She had slept with the lad.
Then followed the father, the grandmother, and finally the
baby. The lad was again swabbed and found the harbourer
of Type 2 (Griffith's) Streptococcus. The other affected
members of the household also provided Type 2.
Even now the story is not complete. The lad returned
to school without apparent resultant infection of his
class-mates but a visitor to the home (an aunt) who arrived
from abroad some considerable time after the events above
related, developed typical scarlet fever with which was again
associated type 2 streptococcus.
In the light of these happenings and the increased knowledge
of the bacteriology of this disease, it will be obvious
that criticism which so often accompanies a return case is very
largely unfounded.
AVERAGE STAY IN HOSPITAL of scarlet fever cases (including
those with dual infections) was 34.2 days. This represents
a decrease of 3.3 days compared with the corresponding
figure for the previous year (37.5 days) and is 2.9 days less
than the average of 37.1 days over the eight-year period
1930-1937 inclusive.
With occasional individual exceptions, present-day scarlet
fever is a mild affection and differs in that respect from a
malignant epidemic which affected Athens at the time of
Thucydides and which had symptomatically much in common
with scarlet fever.