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21
DEATHS FROM INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
Chicken-pox, the only addition made to the list of
notifiable diseases, was made reportable by an order of
the London County Council on March 17th; the order
expired on June 30th and was not renewed.
In my last report reference was made to a circular
issued by the Local Government Board on the subject of
the notification of Measles and, following on this communication
and reports of conferences held during the
year 1915, the Board issued "The Public Health (Measles
and German Measles) Regulations, 1915." These regulations
came into force on the 1st of January, 1916; they
require notification in the usual manner by a medical
man called in to attend a case of Measles or German
Measles, but this requirement is limited to the first case
of the disease in any particular household. Subsequent
cases within the next two months are not to be reported
by the doctor, but the obligation to report (under penalty
for failure) is thrown upon the parents or guardians of
the affected person; moreover, parents and guardians are
required to report all cases where they have reasonable
cause to suspect persons under their care to be suffering
from Measles, irrespective of the medical report. The
Measles Regulations confer power upon the Local
Authority to provide medical and nursing assistance in
necessitous cases, and by direction of the Public Health
Committee I have been making enquiries with a view to
ascertaining the terms upon which this could be arranged,
but nothing definite has been settled pending the action of
the Central Council for District Nursing in London. This
body was formed by the Local Government Board, under
the Presidency of Sir W. J. Collins, M.D., to prepare a