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The prevalence of measles among school children is referred to in the reports relating to the
following districts—
Fulham.—The disease was mainly prevalent among very young children, as while 455 children
attending the infants' departments of the various board schools in Fulham were reported by the
teachers as absent owing to their having measles, only 39 were reported as so suffering in the girls'
and boys' departments, though a large number were excluded on account of the existence of measles
in their homes. The disease appeared to have been very prevalent among children too young to
attend school before it showed itself to any extent among the school children. The infants' department
of the Lillie-road school and some of the infant classes of the Langford-road school were, by arrangement
with the medical officer of the School Board, closed for a short time. In the case of several
other board schools, the fact that the prevalence did not manifest itself until near the approach of
the Christmas holiday rendered closing of the departments unnecessary.
Westminster.—The most serious outbreak of measles occurred at St. Mary's Schools, Hide-place.
On September 26th the disease began to show itself in these schools, mainly in the infants'department.
Eighty-nine children were attacked and ten died ; the ages of the children attacked ranged from three
to seven years. The disease began to abate on October 22nd and then gradually declined. The
medical officer of health thought it inadvisable to close the school on account of the amount of intercourse
which went on between the families of those attacked and of the early infectiousness of the
disease. "All due precautions were taken as to disinfecting, and the daily examination of children
attending the schools."
Hampstead.—In December of 1897 there was recrudescence of the disease, and it spread with
great rapidity among children attending elementary schools. The closing of the schools for the
Christmas vacation did not seem to have much effect in checking the progress of the malady, probably
because the mischief had already been done by the children taking the complaint home to the other
young children.
Islington.—The sanitary authority required the closing of the infants' departments of the
Richard-street, Poole's-park and Upper Hornsey-road Board Schools, and of St. Anne's Church School
on account of prevalence of measles. The medical officer of health states that information as to the
existence of measles among the scholars of the first of these schools only accidentally came to his
knowledge, and that there had been failure to give him notice as required by the " code of regulations
and instructions for the guidance of managers, correspondents and teachers." He recommended that
the infants' department of the Richard-street school should be closed for three weeks, and he asked
the School Board to supply him with the names and addresses of the scholars in order that he might
make inquiry at each scholar's house as to the existence of measles in the house so that he might be in
a position to furnish the School Board with the names and addresses of scholars whom it was desirable
to exclude from school for a longer period than that for which the school was closed. This information
was refused him. Subsequent to the closing of the infants' department of the Poole's-park school, he
asked for the names and addresses of the children in that department of the Poole's-park school. This
information was at first refused him, but was the following day supplied to him by authority of the
vice-chairman of the School Management Committee. The medical officer of health states that
this information has been supplied ever since, and that it has proved of the greatest value in
determining whether a school should be re-opened at the end of three weeks or be kept closed for a
further short period.
Stoke Newington.—The medical officer of health states that he did not find it necessary to close
any school, but that, thanks to the co-operation of the head teachers, he was able to learn from
day to day the number of absentees on account of measles and whooping cough. He considers it,
however, "matter for regret that the regulation of the School Board for London, requiring that
the medical officer of health of the district shall be informed of a child's exclusion on account of
symptoms of infectious disease, is not given effect to as a routine practice." He further writes—"If,
then, we are to reap the greatest benefit in the direction of checking the spread of measles through
schools, it appears to me that we must act up to the knowledge we now possess, i.e., that several
infectious diseases largely spread through schools. The scholars in each school would then be examined
by a medical man, at frequent intervals during even inter-epidemic periods, and almost daily during
epidemic prevalence; all suspects would be sent home and requested to see a doctor, and all absentees
visited, and the true cause of their absence ascertained."
Hackney.—There was especial prevalence of measles in the fourth quarter, particularly in
south-east Hackney, in which district the Gainsborough-road Board school is situated. On the 20th
November the medical officer of health received from the medical officer of the School Board a letter
stating that 120 children were absent from this school suffering from measles, and 36 absent because
of the disease being in their homes. The medical officer suggested the closing of the infants' department
for 14 days. This letter, the medical officer of health writes, was the first intimation he received,
and he coincided at once with the proposal to close the infants' department. He ascertained that at first
the disease was confined to the youngest class for nearly three weeks, and subsequently spread through
the other classes of the school. The result of closure was satisfactory. He thinks that the principle of
closure might usefully be applied to classes in the infants' department at a much earlier stage of an
epidemic of infectious disease, but for such purpose it would be necessary to receive prompt information
from the headmistress of absentees either suffering from disease or having disease in their homes. He
refers to the regulations of the School Board requiring this information to be sent, and publishes a
letter from the clerk of the School Board whom he had addressed on the subject. This letter, which
is dated the 21st December, 1897, states that in their " Official Gazette " of that week the Board had
directed the attention of teachers generally and of the Plumstead teachers in particular to the requirement
of the regulations which they pointed out applied to all infectious ailments, and not only those
which are notifiable under the Public Health (London) Act. The letter further states that it is the
intention of the Board that the teachers shall notify measles and whooping cough to the medical officer
of health.
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