Return cases of scarlet fever and diphtheria : reports and papers relative to the Board's inquiries / Metropolitan Asylums Board.

  • Metropolitan Asylums Board (London, England)
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Return cases of scarlet fever and diphtheria : reports and papers relative to the Board's inquiries / Metropolitan Asylums Board. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    27/52 (page 25)
    (xii.) That the isolation at home is insufficient in duration as a rule, and that the isolation in hospital is, if anything, too long, and that return eases are not due to premature discharge. (xiii.) That a reduction in the duration of the detention of scarlet fever and diphtheria cases in hospital would likely tend to a greater control over the prevalence of scarlet fever and diphtheria in the Metropolis, as it would permit of a larger number being removed to hospital with the same accommodation as exists at present. I have the honour to be, Si]1, Your obedient Servant, T. Duncombe Manx, Esq., Cleric to the Board. \Y. J. SIMPSON, >r.n., f.r.c.p. A copy of this report was, by direction of the Hospitals Committee, sent to the medical superintendents of the Board’s infectious hospitals, who furnished the following observations thereon, viz.:— OBSERVATIONS OF THE MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENTS OF THE SEVERAL HOSPITALS UPON THE REPORT DATED 5th JUNE, 1899, BY Dr. W. J. SIMPSON, RE ALLEGED “ RETURN CASES ” OF SCARLET FEVER AND DIPHTHERIA ADMITTED TO THE BOARD’S HOSPITALS DURING THE SIX MONTHS ENDED THE 31st MARCH, 1899. (1.) EASTERN HOSPITAL. 8tli July, 1899. I beg to offer the following observations on Dr. Simpson’s very valuable report on “ return cases” of scarlet fever and diphtheria. I think 1 can put my remarks more clearly before you by taking the paragraphs in Dr. Simpson’s summary (pp. 23-25) seriatim. Paragraphs (i.) to (iii.) call for no remark. Paragraph (iv.).—This refers to the table on p. 14, in which a comparison is made between the different hospitals. The percentage of primary infective cases will vary with the proportion of scarlet fever and diphtheria cases treated in the different hospitals. Dr. Simpson shows that a smaller proportion of “ return cases” is associated with diphtheria than with scarlet fever. Therefore the hospitals in which the largest numbers of diphtheria patients are treated will have the smallest percentage of “ return cases.” Moreover the number of cases trans- ferred to the convalescent hospitals will affect the proportion of “ return cases ’’ occurring in connection with the individual hospitals. Paragraph (v.).—Dr. Simpson confirms what has long been suspected. Paragraph (vi.).—I think the statement that the “ warm baths immediately before the patient is sent out of hospital do not remove this infection ” is, as regards scarlet fever, a little too sweeping, it is true they have not done so with respect to the particular cases investigated by Dr. Simpson. But Dr. Simpson has no figures dealing with scarlet fever patients who have been discharged without these