SCARLET FEVER INFECTION

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27193, 10 November 1953, Page 12

SCARLET FEVER INFECTION

TWO TYPES NOW NOTIFIED

Seventy cases of scarlet fever were notified in Christchurch for the week ended November 7, but not all of them were scarlet fever as it is commonly known. “We are really notifying the germ, not the complaint,” said the Assistant Medical Officer of Health (Dr. H. T. Knights) yesterday. In some cases the germ of scarlet fever produced a rash and a sore throat, but in other cases only a pronounced sore throat occurred. The latter complaint, known as streptococcal sore throat,

should be treated in the same way as scarlet fever, Dr. Knights said. The week’s figure of 70 cases did not indicate an epidemic, he said, but there was an -increased prevalence of the infection in Canterbury. So far this year there had been 300 notifications of scarlet fever and streptococcal sore throat, 100 of them from the Chatham Islands, where an epidemic occurred. The usual numßter for Canterbury was between 100 and 200. Wellington had provided half the total of 2000 cases of scarlet fever notified in New Zealand this year, said Dr. Knights. Christchurch, in providing about 300 cases, was not providing any more than the usual proportion. In Greymouth three cases of scarlet fever were notified last week. Other infectious diseases notified last week were: tuberculosis (three cases in Christchurch), tetanus (one case in Greymouth), and undulant fever (one case in Christchur**),