Report on an outbreak of scarlet fever during the summer of 1888, in a dairy custom / [Henry E. Armstrong].

  • Newcastle-upon-Tyne (England). City and county.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on an outbreak of scarlet fever during the summer of 1888, in a dairy custom / [Henry E. Armstrong]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    6 The mother stated that they had not been laid ap, or shown signs of skin eruption or aibnent. On leaving the house we returned at once to the dairy, and prohibited flutter from coming near the premises or taking any part in the business, which Miss Dodgson promised should be carried out forthwith, and which Mr. Dodgson afterwards told me had been done. I learnt that bad throats had been prevalent in G-osforth for some time before my visit. Progress of the Outhrealc in Newcastle.—By next day (4th July) the cases of Scarlet Fever in the custom of this dairy had increased to 22, out of a total of 24 notified in the entire city during the first four days of the month. It then became a question whether I was justified in allowing this milk supply to be continued to the inhabitants of Newcastle on the evidence and after the action taken as above described. The case stood thus —Here is a sudden outbreak of Scarlet Fever in a large and well-to- do district of the city, confined to the customers of a cleanly dairy of healthy cattle. The children of a non-resident servant of the diary have Sore Throats. It is promised that the servant shall not come near the dairy or milk until authorised by me to do so. If infection came from these children, is not the action taken sufficient to protect subsequent yields of milk ? What j^roo/ is there that the milk is now infected ? and what justification for prohibiting it at this present stage? After consultation with Mr. T. B. Winter, Chairman of the Sanitary Committee, and the Town Clerk, I decided, on their advice, to wait until the following day. Remarkahle Cases proving connection ivith the Milk.—Next morning's post (.5th inst.) brought several notifications of Scarlet Fever in fresh households supplied from the same dairy, and, among others, five cases in the practice of Dr. Scotland, who supplied the following information, showing a remarkable association between the disease and the milk. 1'hree of the five patients (two of whom live together, and the third, a girl, lives in a different locality) regularly take the milk in question. The other two (boys), with their sister, on Saturday, June 30th, visited at the house of the girl above-named, who was then quite well, and stayed to the afternoon meal, at which the girl and the two boys drank milk. They all sickened, and on Tuesday, July 3rd, developed the eruption of Scarlet Fever. The boys' sister, who at that meal took tea, remained well. In each of the infected households above referred to the servants had also Sore Throats. On the same day another instance, in the practice of