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(b) Insufficient nursing staff, so that the same nurse receives the patient from
the ward in his infectious clothes, and later carries him in his clean clothes to his
parents.
(c) Clandestine conveyance of small toys or ornaments by patients from ward
which have not been previously disinfected.
(d) Examination of patient after he has received his final bath by the Medical
Officer, who is wearing infectious clothes and no overall.
4. Peeling of skin and too short a period of detention in hospital.
It is true that there have been return cases even when the primary case had
long ceased to peel. It is also true that many cases are discharged peeling profusely,
and have been followed by no ill results.
The general opinion at present among Medical Officers of the Metropolitan
Asylums Board is that the peeling is not infective; but this is difficult to reconcile
with the assertion of Class, who maintains that he has found the special organism in
the desquamating cuticle. Class's observations have, however, not been confirmed
in Europe, and are not accepted here by competent authorities. Apart from this,
the clinical experience of practically all general practitioners is in favour of the
patients being considered infectious, when they are "peeling."
5. Presence of serous or purulent discharge from nose, earS, mouth, even though
apparently insignificant and of mild degree. Sore nose, eczematous condition
of face or mouth.
The discharges in the above are undoubtedly infective agents.
Such discharge may or may not be present when the patient is removed from
the hospital, but may occur later, having been induced by a cold caught on the way
home, e.g., on the top of a bus or by the warm bath given in the institution shortly
before the patient's discharge.
In these cases it is supposed that the patient coming from an infectious ward
has present in his mouth, throat, and nasal passages, the specific organism which,