The Female Scarlet Fever Ward,London Fever Hospital, Islington, London
The London Fever Hospital was a voluntary run infectious diseases hospital founded in 1802, moving to Liverpool Road in 1848. This photograph shows a ward designed in the early 20th century by Keith Downes Young, architect to the London Fever Hospital for over 40 years. Scarlet Fever is a bacterial illness that mainly affects children. It causes a distinctive pink-red rash, hence the name ‘scarlet’ fever. It is easily spread to other people, not all of whom get symptoms or seem sick. In the first decades of the 20th century in England and Wales it was a leading cause of child death. There is no vaccine, but from 1945 onwards antibiotic treatments became available and this led to a large decline in cases.
