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40
Seventeen deaths were of infants under one year of age, and
68 of children aged one to five years.

The mortality from measles was high during the first quarter
of the year 1913. There was a severe epidemic of measles in
Battersea, which commenced towards the end of 1912 and continued
up to the end of the first quarter. of 1913, 110 deaths
occurring from the disease in the six months. The epidemic
rapidly declined after March, 1913.
The high death-rate from measles is still a matter for serious
concern, and it is clear that under existing circumstances the
measures available to Sanitary Authorities for dealing with this
fatal scourge of child life are inadequate. With almost automatic
regularity every two years an explosive outbreak of measles occurs,
resulting in a high mortality amongst children. Although all
possible steps are taken by the Health Department, these suffer
from the lack of a satisfactory system of notification and lack of
means for securing, in the poorer and more congested areas of
the Borough, adequate means of isolation. Some two or three
years ago the Local Government Board arranged with the Metropolitan
Asylums Board for the removal to the Board's hospitals of
cases of measles on the recommendation of the Medical Officer
of Health. The accommodation available for these cases has at
times been found to be limited, and cases have had to be refused
admission. It is to be regretted that, having regard to the
extremely fatal nature of this disease, those additional measures
which have been advocated, viz.:—
1. A modified system of compulsory notification;
2. Facilities for hospital removal and isolation;
3. Exclusion of children under five years of age from the
Public Elementary Schools;
have not yet been adopted. (Vide Special Report in Appendix.)
Whooping cough.
During 1913, in the Borough of Battersea, 26 deaths were
registered from whooping-cough, as compared with 40 in 1912.
The deaths were 29 below the average for the preceding 10 years,
and were equivalent to a death-rate of 0.16 per 1,000, as compared
with 0.30, the mean death-rate for the previous 10 years.