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may have long since lapsed, it is only right that
everything possible in the way of detention under
medical supervision should be undertaken in order
to prevent, if possible, the occurrence of such a dire
result.
In the case of Scarlet Fever where the
minimum period of detention is until the termination
of the sixth week of disease, infectiousness in
most of the cases has passed off by that time. It is
a regrettable fact however, that it does not pass
off in all within that period, a small percentage
retaining their infectiousness with greater persistence.
In the majority of these cases evidence of
infectiousness is quite obvious, but in a small
number nothing abnormal is to be detected, they
are to all appearances cured and well, and in
consequence are discharged to their homes. There,
unfortunately, they set up secondary cases, or
"return cases," as they are called, amongst the
members of their own family. With a few exceptions
these return cases occur within a month of
the date of discharge of the primary (and as it
turned out to be the infectious) case from the
hospital.