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The age incidence of the patients admitted was as follows :—
Years 0-5 5-10 10-15 15+ Total
93 154 78 49 374
Scarlet Fever.
The number of patients admitted was 796, compared with
569 during 1933. 128 patients remained under treatment at the
end of 1933. 853 patients were discharged during the year. The
following is a summary of the routine treatment. On admission,
10 c.c's. of anti-scarlatinal serum is given in cases of ordinary
severity. As soon as the constitutional symptoms begin to subside,
the Schick test is performed. Schick-positive patients are
subsequently immunised while still in hospital providing the parents
are agreeable. It must be mentioned here that the administration
of anti-scarlatinal serum definitely affects the Schick test owing to
the percentage of anti-diphtheritic serum contained in most specimens
of anti-scarlatinal serum supplied. It is, therefore, only
the very susceptible patients who give a positive Schick result. On
the eighteenth day each patient is Dick-tested. About 95 per cent.
are found to be negative. The remaining 5 per cent. are put into
cubicles as it is found that they are liable to re-infection if left in
the general ward.
Patients are generally sent home in four weeks. Thus, of a
series of 500 consecutive cases treated as above:—
87 per cent. were discharged in four weeks.
5.8 per cent. were discharged in five weeks.
7.2 per cent. were discharged in from five to eight weeks.
Complications for this series totalled 36 cases or 7.2 per cent,
which may be analysed as follows:—
Otorrhcea, 2.8 per cent.
Rhinorrhœa, 2.0 per cent.
Endocarditis, 0.8 per cent.
Rheumatism, 1.0 per cent.
Nephritis, 0.6 per cent.
There were five deaths, the mortality rate being 0.58 per cent.
as compared with 0.9 per cent. for the previous year. The age
incidence was as follows:—
Yeats 0-5 5-10 10-15 15+ Total
176 317 182 121 796