Incidence of Scarlet Fever

Abstract

ACCORDING to the Weekly Epidemiological Record of March 2, in recent years scarlet fever has ceased to be a disease of any great clinical importance, but its geographical distribution is extraordinary as it is very frequent in northern latitudes and practically unknown in the torrid zone. In the seventies of the nineteenth century, its fatality in northern Europe was more than 10 per cent, and in mortality it exceeded any other acute infection. Between 1875 and 1885 the mortality was halved; it was halved again between 1885 and 1900, and in the present century it has fallen below 1 per cent. Scarlet fever is endemic in all parts of the world in which it occurs, but shows wide variation in incidence from year to year. During the present War, the incidence of this disease has shown no relationship to the public nutrition or the state of military activity, as is shown by the fact that in Germany, which is the best nourished country on the Continent and presents the greatest military activity, the incidence of scarlet fever is excessively high, as it is also in Norway, Holland and Greece, where the nutrition is low. In England and Wales, where the nutrition is good, incidence of the disease fell below normal until 1941, since when it has shown a slight increase. In the United States the numbers arey still falling. It is noteworthy that in no country where returns are available has there been any reported increase of severity.