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13
four other women and a baby. From Chichester she went to West Wittering to
her mother's home, by carrier's van with other passengers. Subsequently, a boy
at this place developed Scarlet Fever.
On her return to East India Dock Road, I interviewed her, but she denied that
she had been told she was suffering from Scarlet Fever before she left for West
Wittering. She further told me that the day before she was taken ill, she had a
tin of salmon for tea, and she attributed her illness to it.
A girl aged 9½, living in Commercial Road, was notified to be suffering from
Scarlet Fever on October 26th. There were three children in the family besides
the patient. On October 27th, when the premises were visited by the Sanitary
Inspector, he found that the child had been taken to the London Hospital. The
Inspector immediately proceeded to the Hospital, and found the patient in charge
of her aunt in the isolation room, waiting for the ambulance to remove the patient
to the Fever Hospital. When asked why she had brought the child through the
streets to the Hospital, and so exposed people to infection, the aunt replied, that
as the ambulance had not come to remove the patient that morning, she brought
her niece to the London Hospital.
There is no doubt of the fact that the epidemic, being of a mild character, was to
a great extent responsible for its spread. Children contracted the disease, and as
they were apparently not very ill, no doctor was called to see them. No attempt at
isolation was made, and therefore other cases occurred in the same family. The
number of houses in which multiple cases occurred was abnormal.
There was apparently no connection with the milk supply, but some schools
were more affected than others, as is seen by the accompanying tables.