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44
Cause of Outbreak and Spread of Measles in the Schools.
Whilst the number of deaths (under 5 years) is excessive, the
number of cases (under 5 years) that have occurred (60) is also
excessive. Taking the average number (under 5 years of age) in
residence as 100, the incidence of Measles is 60 per cent., and the
Measles death-rate at that age-period per 1,000 living is 110, as
compared with less than 2 for the whole of the Borough, and 0 for
Norwood District alone, extending over a period of four months,
and it becomes necessary, therefore, to trace how the disease has
spread from scholar to scholar. It is true that children from an
institution who attend daily at Board Schools run such risks of
infection as do all children attending such Board Schools from
different houses in the neighbourhood, but, during the period
under investigation, Measles has not been, to any extent, epidemic
in Norwood, as shown by thefact that during the last 12 months
one death only has been registered from Measles throughout the
whole of the distriot (excluding the Schools). Indeed, if we
assume that Measles has been epidemic outside the Schools during
the period under investigation, the alarming difference between
the outside mortality from the disease and that within the School
Buildings will have to be accounted for, bearing in mind the better
nursing and other conditions that are supposed to exist in such
Buildings as compared with those met with in the ordinary houses
of the working classes. It is equally true that children from an
infected Institution may spread the disease throughout the district
in which such Institution is situated by means of Board Schools.
It appears from my investigations that the disease has been
brought into the Lambeth Schools, not from the Norwood
District, but from the Inner Wards of the Borough, whence
children are drafted to the Schools, and where Measles has been
in an epidemic form during the period under investigation. From
the Lambeth Schools the disease has spread into the Norwood
district, where there is at present a commencing outbreak being
spread through Gipsy Road, Woodland Road, Rockmount Road,
and Salters' Hill Board Schools, where the children attend
from tlie Lambeth Schools. To prevent, or at least to
minimise, as far as possible, the spread of infectious diseases
in the Lambeth Schools, the Guardians' Buildings have
been planned in an exemplary way. The Schools consist
of the Main Building, where boys and girls live; a
Receiving Ward (a long distance away), into which the new
arrivals from the Workhouses are received, and from which they
are drafted to isolated Probation Wards (for a quarantine period of
three weeks) prior to being admitted into the Main Buildings;
whilst there is a detached Infirmary for the treatment of all the