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A study of secondary cases of scarlet fever
ABSTRACTS
CURRENT NUTRITION
OF
LlTERATURE AND
PEDIATRIC8
BY S~~IIUEL ADA&IS COHEN, M.D., Nmv
PORK CITY
It is the purpose of this Journal to review so far as possible the most important literature as it appears in English and foreign periodicals and to present it in abstract form. Authors are ITquested to send abstracts or reprints of their papers to the publishers.
A Study d Secondary Cases of Scarlet Fever, State Jour. Med. 33: 14, 1933.
William
H. Best.
The isolation period for cases of scarlet fever in IVew York City days, provided desquamation has ceased and t.here is no abnormal from the nose, ear, or mastoid, and no enlarged cervical glands. are not quarantined but some individuals-school children, school food handlers-are excluded from work or school.
N. Y.
is thirt,y discharge Contacts teachers,
In order to ascertain whether this period of isolation and exclusion is unnecessarily long, Best, who writes from the Bureau of Preventable Diseases, Department of EIealt.h, New York City, made a worth-while study of secondary cases developing in scarlet fever contacts to determine at what period during the convalescence of the primary cases secondary cases developed. All told 11,357 cases of scarlet fever were reviewed and 8 per cent. of these were secondary cases. There were 37,788 contacts and 2.4 per cent of the contacts developed scarlet fever. Of the secondary cases over half, or 56 per cent, occurred within one week after the onset of the primary case and were in all probability contracted either from the same source as the primary case or from the primary case before it,s isolation. The author found that the susceptibility to scarlet fever of the age group sixteen years or over is comparatively slight. Because there is a gradual diminishing infectivity in uncomplicated cases of scarlet, fever up t,o the twenty-first day Best states that these cases may be terminated on that day with no greater danger to the community than terminating it on the thirtieth day. On the other hand complicated cases should be isolated until the complication is cleared up unless it can be demonstrated by culture that discharge coming from the nose, ears, mastoid wound or from broken-down glands is free from contagion. Best brings out a point which can stand repeated emphasis when he states that since the infectivit,y of desquamation is an obsolete theory. cases of scarlet fever may be terminated without regard to its presence.
974
CURRENT NUTRITION
OF
LlTERATURE AND
PEDIATRIC8
BY S~~IIUEL ADA&IS COHEN, M.D., Nmv
PORK CITY
It is the purpose of this Journal to review so far as possible the most important literature as it appears in English and foreign periodicals and to present it in abstract form. Authors are ITquested to send abstracts or reprints of their papers to the publishers.
A Study d Secondary Cases of Scarlet Fever, State Jour. Med. 33: 14, 1933.
William
H. Best.
The isolation period for cases of scarlet fever in IVew York City days, provided desquamation has ceased and t.here is no abnormal from the nose, ear, or mastoid, and no enlarged cervical glands. are not quarantined but some individuals-school children, school food handlers-are excluded from work or school.
N. Y.
is thirt,y discharge Contacts teachers,
In order to ascertain whether this period of isolation and exclusion is unnecessarily long, Best, who writes from the Bureau of Preventable Diseases, Department of EIealt.h, New York City, made a worth-while study of secondary cases developing in scarlet fever contacts to determine at what period during the convalescence of the primary cases secondary cases developed. All told 11,357 cases of scarlet fever were reviewed and 8 per cent. of these were secondary cases. There were 37,788 contacts and 2.4 per cent of the contacts developed scarlet fever. Of the secondary cases over half, or 56 per cent, occurred within one week after the onset of the primary case and were in all probability contracted either from the same source as the primary case or from the primary case before it,s isolation. The author found that the susceptibility to scarlet fever of the age group sixteen years or over is comparatively slight. Because there is a gradual diminishing infectivity in uncomplicated cases of scarlet, fever up t,o the twenty-first day Best states that these cases may be terminated on that day with no greater danger to the community than terminating it on the thirtieth day. On the other hand complicated cases should be isolated until the complication is cleared up unless it can be demonstrated by culture that discharge coming from the nose, ears, mastoid wound or from broken-down glands is free from contagion. Best brings out a point which can stand repeated emphasis when he states that since the infectivit,y of desquamation is an obsolete theory. cases of scarlet fever may be terminated without regard to its presence.
974