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( 42)
It is certain that so far as Willesden is concerned,
our experience does not bear out the statements made
that return cases are so numerous as to invalidate the
usefulness of Isolation Hospitals. During the year,
277 patients were discharged from Hospital as
having recovered from Scarlet Fever, and as presenting
at the date of their discharge no evidence of
infectiousness.
The event has proved that six of these cases, or
2.1 per cent., were at the time of their discharge, or
within one month subsequent to this, apparently
capable of giving rise to Scarlet Fever in other
persons with whom they came into contact, since in
the households to which they were discharged return
cases have occurred. It would be a mistake, however,
to conclude that every case classed as a return
inevitably received its infection from the case discharged
from Hospital. Twice within the last few
months it has been my experience to receive notifications
from households to which cases discharged from
Hospital had returned prior to the receipt of the
notification. On investigation, however, it was found
in one case that the notification was of a case which