View report page

81
The complication percentage incidence rate (21.1 per cent.)
of home-treated patients compares very favourably with the
comparative rate of 30 per cent, for patients treated in hospital
during the same period.
Contact Attack Rate During Period of Isolation.
As far as I am aware, there are no published results of the
comparative percentage attack rate of contacts of hospital-treated
and home-treated cases during the same epidemic. Comparison
has been made between the two groups on the basis of houses infected,
but I am advised that the incidence rate of secondary cases
among contacts is the proper basis of comparison.
Table 9 shows the results of a statistical analysis of the occurrence
of secondary cases among Leyton contacts during the five-year
period 1932-36. It shows not only the risk to all contacts and to
contacts of three different age groups, but also the risk during
the first week as compared with that during the remaining weeks
of isolation. As it was found impossible to form any reliable
estimate of the number of contacts or primary cases occurring in
institutions, these cases have been omitted from the analysis, which
deals only with cases of scarlet fever notified from private houses
in Leyton.