[Report 1925] / Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City.

  • Leeds (England). City Council.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1925] / Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    91/192 (page 87)
    The type of disease was mild, so much so, that it was difficult to be sure in every case whether the infection was that of scarlet fever or not. The number of cases removed to hospital was 1,091 or 93-6 per cent, of the total notifications. It is generally recognised to-day by medical authorities that scarlet fever is not the dangerous disease it used to be and the necessity for hospital treatment is therefore not so great. Where facilities for isolation and nursing are adequate and the home conditions are suitable there is nothing to be gained by removal to hospital. Indeed, I am persuaded, from a public health point of view, it would be better to fi]l a proportion of the beds in our fever hospital at present reserved for scarlet fever with cases of measles and whooping cough. Two localised outbreaks of scarlet fever occurred, the particulars of which may be interesting, one was in connection with a large ready-made clothing factory and the other on a milk round. As regards the former, one of the factory hands was attacked by the disease, but being mild, the infection was not detected in the initial stages, with the result that other members of the same staff to the number of 26 developed the disease. The outbreak illustrates the difficulty of dealing with mild cases. Notwithstanding strict injunctions given to the staff to be on the outlook for symptoms, employees in an infective state continued at work, and it was not until a system of individual inspection by medical officers was adopted and all suspects eliminated that the outbreak was brought under control. With regard to the second outbreak, the infection in this case was confined to a certain milk round and when investigations were made was traced to a farm outside the City whereon there was a milker who showed signs of active disease. The Local Authority of the district in question was informed and as a result of the preventive measures adopted further cases were prevented and the outbreak cut short. The number of cases involved in this outbreak was ten, mostly children. During the year 49 “ return ” cases were reported. That is rather a heavy list but it is doubtful whether all were true “ return ” cases. Seven of the primary cases were re-admitted to hospital for further treatment.