SCARLET FEVER.

Evening Star, Issue 4319, 30 December 1876, Page 2

SCARLET FEVER.

To the Editor. Sir, —On the 4th November I took possession of a house in St. David street as tenant; on the 9bh my eldest daughter was taken ill with scarlet fever; on the Hth my youngest daughter was seized by the same disease, dying early on the morning of the 16th ; on the 17th my second daughter was taken ill of the same disease, accompanied with typhoid fever ; on the 28th or 29th my wife was seized with scarlet fever and measles combined, endiog in death on the 6th of December. The first and third of the above cases are now, since the 7th December, inmates of the Fever Hospital, both cases progressing favorably. After it was known in the neighborhood that there was fever in my family I was informed there had been fever in the house a few weeks prior to my taking possession of it as tenant. I understand that parents or householders are bound to report all cases of infectious diseases to the Medical Officer of the Board of Health. If the above case was reported to the proper officer, why was the house not disinfected before another tenant was*allowed to enter it? There has evidently been gross neglect either on the part of the tenant, the medical attendant of the family, or the medical officer of the Board of Health. lam likewise given to understand that men are now relieved from the responsibility of reporting infectiouscases to the proper authorities. The doctors I think ought to be the responsible parties for reporting all infectious cases, and that too uuder a heavy penalty "in neglecting to do so. My case, as above stated, I consider a very hard one—to lose a dear wife and child, and neavly lose the other two, as I believe they were both most dangerous cases, plainly shows that there ought to be more stringent measures at work for the reporting of infectious cases and infected houses. I may st:ite that before I left the house in question it and its contents were twice mest carefully fumigated by MrLowroy, Sanitary Inspector.—lam, &c, P.M. Dunedin, December 28.