WITH the worrying outbreak of Strep A grabbing the headlines, a regular reader who grew up in Stainton, on the outskirts of Barnard Castle, in the 1940s calls to tell how the infection was treated in her day.

The bacteria group A Streptococcus is highly contagious. It causes scarlet fever – so called because it produces a scarlet rash on the skin and “strawberry” tongue, which is red and bumpy – which if it gets into the bloodstream is extremely nasty and known as invasive Group A Strep.

Nowadays, it is treated with antibiotics, but they only became widely available in the late 1940s. Before then, it was isolation and disinfectant.

Our caller was younger than 10 in the late 1940s when she was whisked from Stainton to Tindale Crescent Hospital where she was put into three weeks of complete isolation – even her mother could only view her through a window.

Her home was fumigated immediately she left, and all possessions, like toys, that she was taking with her also had to go into a steam fumigation room.

Tindale Crescent isolation hospital opened in the countryside on the outskirts of Bishop Auckland in 1900. It was one of 28 such remote hospitals in County Durham – in Darlington, there was Hundens hospital off Yarm Road which had opened in 1874.

The Northern Echo: Hundens Lane isolation hospital, on the eastern outskirts of Darlington, opened in December 1874. It was designed by GG Hoskins but was demolished in May 1982 without any photographs recording what it looked like. This is the demolition in progress with

Hundens Lane isolation hospital, on the eastern outskirts of Darlington, opened in December 1874. It was designed by GG Hoskins but was demolished in May 1982 without any photographs recording what it looked like. This is the demolition in progress with the remains of the hospital behind. We don't have a photo of Tindale Crescent Hospital, either

These hospitals had wards for diphtheria, scarlet fever and enteric fever, but recovery was not assured – Tindale had its own mortuary out the back.

After about three weeks, our caller was allowed to return to her newly-fumigated home, but before she went, she was given a bath of disinfectant in which her head was pushed underwater just to make sure the offending bacteria were thoroughly defeated.