[Report 1929] / Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer of Health, Swindon Borough.

  • Swindon (Wiltshire, England). Borough Council.
Date:
1929
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1929] / Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer of Health, Swindon Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    140/178 (page 72)
    It is discussed in the annual report of the Medial Officer of Health. The cases were all mild and were nursed in separation in the Isolation Hospital. 26 cases developed chickenpox in Hospital. 4 of these were incubating the disease on admission and were responsible for the 22 cases which were infected in Hospital. Chickenpox was very severe in Swindon, particularly in Old Town, and the Hospital cases were part of this Old Town epidemic. Owing to the severity of the type, we had the opportunity of obtaining evidence on two points in connection with chickenpox which are of epidemiologica' importance. The first is that the rash of chickenpox occurs noi on the first, but upon the third day and, secondly, that its infec- tivity is almost, if not entirely, limited to the second day of the disease, i.e., to the period when the first crop of spots is just be¬ ginning to develop. It is a well known fact that the spread ol chickenpox cannot be prevented by means which are adopted foi the suppression of other forms of epidemic disease liable to occui in Hospitals. The reason is apparent!}/ that the infectivity ol the disease is greatest before the disease can usually be recognized and so the means adopted to prevent its spread are adopted toe late. Severe chickenpox has, however, the characteristic M shaped course which is common to all virus diseases, i.e., there is the first reaction, which is indefinite, followed by a pause which in its turn is followed by a second reaction carrying the characteristic signs. It is only in severe chickenpox that the first phase of the reaction can be recognized. The only other cross infection was one case of diphtheria which developed in a scarlet fever patient. Two patients were admitted on the same day, a brother and a sister, one suffering definitely from diphtheria and the other from scarlet fever. The case which had scarlet fever was bacteriologically negative to Klebs-Loffler and was also Schick negative, so he was treated in the general scarlet fever ward ; but the patient in the next bed developed diphtheria. RETURN CASES. There were 6 alleged return cases, 1 of which was rejected and 5 accepted. The details are as follows :— (1) Case discharged after 28 days in Hospital. Simple scarlet fever, no complications. Return case started 7 day^i later. (2) Discharged after 35 days in Hospital. A severe case treated with serum. Two sisters developed scarlet fever respect tively 7 and 14 days later. These cases were not treated in Swindon Isolation Hospital.