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greatest precautions are taken not to discharge a patient from hospital
until the risk of infection is past. When cases are convalescent
and apparently no longer infectious, they are removed to the
"discharge" block, and kept there for about a week. A separate
nurse attends to them, and there is no communication between this
block and the infectious wards. In some cases, however, infection
germs lurk in the intricate channels of the "Naso-pharynx" (back
of nose and throat), which, supposing the child to take cold and
get nasal discharge, at once renders it infectious to others in close
contact with it. This is the rationale of "Return Cases," and
no amount of care will prevent such cases occasionally occurring.
It happens in all Scarlet Fever hospitals, and I am happy !to say
that in our hospital, the number of "Return Cases" is less than
in most Isolation Hospitals. During the past year the number was
about 3 per cent.