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It is of interest to record that a boy of 12 years in one of the infected
families fell ill with symptoms of acute gastro-enteritis and developed
acute appendicitis from which he died. In, view of the occurrence of
known cases of Sonne dysentery in the house at the time, there seems
little doubt that the original gastro-enteritis in this boy was of this
nature and the supervening appendicitis must be regarded as a complication
of Sonne dysentery. It was not until after the boy had died
that the true nature of the cases in the house was established, otherwise
bacteriological examination of the boy's gastro-enteritis might well
have been undertaken and have revealed the dysentery organism.
Scarlet Fever
The incidence of scarlet fever has varied but little over the last
10 years. A total of 126 cases was notified in 1953, all but one residents
of the district. This provides an incidence rate of 2.04 per thousand
population.
There were no deaths.
Sixty cases, representing 47% of the total, were nursed at home.
This is much the highest percentage receiving domiciliary treatment
yet recorded and compares with 38% in the year before. The growing
practice of nursing scarlet fever at home where accommodation and
facilities for reasonable isolation are adequate, has had no adverse
effect on the spread of this disease. One of the advantages of this practice
is that many cross-infections which arise when cases are nursed in
multiple-bed wards are avoided.