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12
SCARLET FEVER.
Twenty-one cases were notified, of which 19 were
removed to the Isolation Hospital of the Hendon Rural
District Council under the arrangement in force for this
purpose for the treatment of scarlet fever and diphtheria.
There was no mortality from this disease. An outbreak
occurred early in the year in which five children in the
same family were infected through the original case
having been overlooked by the parents. In June and
again in November two other cases occurred in which one
other child of the same family was infected within two
.or three days of the removal of the first case, but in all
other instances removal of the first case saved any further
infection. No cases were due to infected milk or other
sources capable of diffusing infection over a wide area.
There were no "return cases."
When the child returns home from hospital, the
parents or guardian is seen and advised to keep it away
from other children of the family as far as possible,
especially as regards sleeping, for at least another fortnight,
to let it use separate eating utensils and towels
for the same period, and be kept from attending school
for two or three weeks, according to its condition of
health.
We find great difficulty sometimes in preventing
persons from visiting houses were cases of infectious
disease have broken out. There does not appear to be
any legal penalty attaching to this very risky procedure.
Provision is made for preventing or punishing exposure
of infected persons in public places, but none to meet the
opposite case, viz., the visiting of infected houses and
places by persons outside the family who will often run
serious risk in this way, perhaps subjecting susceptible
children to the same danger. Sec. 68 of the Public
Health Act (Amendment Act), 1907, prohibits any outside
person from visiting the house after the death therein of
a person from an infectious disease before burial of the
patient and disinfection of the premises, but none exists
prohibiting visiting an infected person while living, when
the danger is quite as great.
Two cases were imported into the district from
outside.
DIPHTHERIA.
Only two cases of diphtheria were notified during
the year as compared with 13 in 1909. One of these
was discovered in a very fortunate manner, thereby, in