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47
It cannot be too widely known by, or impressed upon the
public that the efficacy of antitoxin is in direct proportion to the
earliness in the course of the disease in which it is administered,
so that when injected on the first day" of the disease the mortality
is less than 1 per cent, whereas, if delayed till the 3rd or 4th
day, the mortality leaps up to 20 to 25 per cent.
If this was more widely known and realised, surely no one
would hesitate in any case of throat affection to seek medical
advice at once. Then, if there was the least suspicion of
Diphtheria, the doctor should at once give an adequate dose of
antitoxin, and then confirm or otherwise the suspicion or
diagnosis by taking a swab of the throat and submitting it for
bacteriological examination. If the case should not prove to be
one of Diphtheria, the antitoxin is quite harmless.
Antitoxin and diagnosis outfits are always kept at the Council
Offices, and supplied to all medical practitioners in the District
free of charge. The expense of bacteriological examination is also
borne by the Council.
The average times of detention in Hospital, excluding those
who died within a day or two of admission, and those the
diagnosis of which was not confirmed, were:—For Scarlet Fever
47 days, and for Diphtheria 49 days.