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17
That there is reason to believe that of the so-called
"return" cases some have been due to the re-introduction
of infection into households owing to the
disturbance of insufficiently disinfected clothes, etc.,
left at home and stored away during the patients' stay
in Hospital.
(b) That it is desirable that those Sanitary
Authorities in the Metropolitan District who have not
yet provided themselves with steam disinfectors should
be urged to do so with the least possible delay; and,
further, that the Authorities who still entrust the work
of disinfection to contractors should be advised to discontinue
the practice, and to have the work carried out
by responsible officials.
With regard to their statement that there is no evidence
to show that any appreciable number of cases have occurred,
I would point out that the conclusions of the Sub-Committee
'are based upon inaccurate figures.
They state that they find from evidence supplied by the
several Metropolitan Medical Officers, as to the outbreak
of illness in households after the return home of recovered
patients from the Board's Fever Hospitals, that only 165
cases of alleged infection from discharged patients were
recorded. Of these 165 cases, 49 occurred during the first
half of the present year, 1895, and 10 during the year
1891-1892, leaving 106 for the two years 1893 and 1894,
during which time 30,227 patients who had been suffering
from Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria were discharged from
the Hospitals of the Board. This gives one case of insection
for every 285 discharges. But on looking through
the abstract of the replies given by the Medical Officers of
Health, it will be seen that this by no means represents the
???rue proportion, as in the first place, several Medical
Officers of Health state, that though many such cases have
occurred in their districts, they are unable to give details, but
in the Committee's report it is assumed that no cases have
occurred in these districts. Again, the figures given by the