View report page

1919]
46
Government Board, called a conference of the Medical Officers of Health of
London to consider the question of the notification of Measles. The members
of that Conference voted, with one exception, who was the Medical Officer of
Health of Islington, for the adoption of the notification of the disease, and he
gave as a reason for his opposition that his experience had taught him that the
disease was beyond control, but that if children under five years of age were
excluded from school attendance, more good would be effected than by notification.
He was then asked by a member of the Conference who would look after
the children if they stayed at home, to which he replied, " their mothers who
brought them into the world, and whose duty it was to look after their children
until they were five years old, at which time thev would be fit to enter school."
The disease was not made notifiable then, but almost immediately after Mr. John
Burns retired from the Government its notification was made compulsory.
The result was a failure, as the Medical Officer of Health had foretold, and
consequently during the early days of December last year its notification was
cancelled by the Ministry of Health. To-day there is no notification of measles
in England and Wales. The disease, however, is still locally notified to the
Medical Officer of Health by the teachers of the public elementary schools.
Its notification lasted from Tanuary 1st, 1916, to January 1st, 1920.

THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES IN THE PUBLIC ELEMENTARY
SCHOOLS.
1,448 cases of the notifiable infectious diseases occurred in the Public
Elementary Schools of the Borough, of which 2 were Small Pox, 701 were
Scarlet Fever, 320 Diphtheria, 1 Enteric Fever, 420 Measles, and 4 other
diseases.