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91
MEASLES.
This disorder was prevalent in Shoreditch during several months of the year.
Deaths were most numerous in June, November and December. In the latter two
months 72 deaths were registered as duo to measles. The total number of deaths
for the year was 111, of these 13 belonged to Shoreditch South, 24 to Hoxton New
Town, 26 to Hoxton Old Town and 48 to Haggerston. The death-rate from measles
in the parish was 0.91 per 1,000 inhabitants as compared with 1.10 in 1896, 0.84 in
1895, 0.52 in 1894, and l.04 in 1893. The number of deaths attributed to measles
in London during 1897 was 1,927, and the death-rate was 0.43 per 1,000 inhabitants-
In the subjoined table are shewn the number of deaths due to measles, together
with the total deaths from all causes in Shoreditch during the past six years:—

Only four of the 111 deaths were of children over live years of age and the whole of
the children who died were under fifteen years. In most instances complications were
the immediate cause of death. Patients suffering from measles are very liable to
inflammatory disorders of the lungs and air passages, and especially so, if due
precautions are not exercised in the treatment of, and attention bestowed upon the
nursing of such patients, No case ought to be regarded as a slight affair. Measles
is oftentimes a very dangerous infectious disorder and may be attended with a
mortality as high, or even higher than those of most of the infectious diseases which
are classed as dangerous in the Public Health Acts.
The number of deaths directly or indirectly attributed to measles which annually
occur in Shoreditch early in the year came under the consideration of the Public
Health Committee who directed handbills to be circulated about the Parish,
calling the attention of parents and others who have the management of children
to the great importance of exercising due care in all cases of measles, and pointing
out the great liability to bronchitis and inflammation of the lungs to which children
so suffering were subject.
Every person suffering from measles ought to be confined to bed in a warm,
well-ventilated room, and kept in bed until convalescence is well established.
Attention was also drawn to the importance of keeping children belonging to an
infected household from attending school for at least a month from the date the last
person in such household was attacked.