View report page

36
In the first place measles is a notifiable disease in
this borough under a special order of the Ministry of
Health dated 20th March, 1920. This enables each
case to be visited, which is valuable, not so much in
checking the spread of the disease which has its most
infectious period before the rash appears, but rather
as an important step towards checking the mortality
and morbidity.
It is unfortunately only too frequently the custom
of poorer class parents when dealing with a case
of measles to send for the doctor in the first place and,
as soon as he has made a diagnosis of measles to think
that they can cope with the illness themselves. Accordingly
the doctor's first visit is very often his last
and thus symptoms of complications are missed.
Owing to notification all these cases are visited by the
Health Visitors who take the opportunity of giving
advice to the mother and if necessary urging her that
the doctor should be again summoned or that nursing
assistance or removal of the case to hospital is necessary.
The Council will be aware that hospital accommodation
is provided by the Metropolitan Asylums Board for
severe cases of measles where in the opinion of the
Borough Medical Officer of Health the home conditions
are unsatisfactory. Unfortunately in the heat of an
epidemic the accommodation provided in these hospitals
is seldom sufficient to meet the demand and occasionally
even urgent cases have to wait one or two days before
admission to hospital. The Poor Law Guardians also
admit cases of measles to certain wards in the Fulham
Hospital. Further, home nursing is provided for
cases of measles by the Council through the agency of
the Fulham Branch of the Queen Victoria Jubilee
District Nurses.
Encephalitis Lethargica.—As stated earlier in this
report the number of cases of encephalitis lethargica
(sleepy sickness) has fallen from 21 in 1924 to 10 in
1925. It is as a general rule extremely difficult to
find any connection between one case of this disease and
another and therefore I think it may be interesting