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91
Cases nursed at home —
Age. Remarks.
1 year 2 months Second case in family. Mother refused to
call in a doctor or nurse at commencement
of illness. Child developed
pneumonia.
2 years Doctor in attendance. Nursed by mother.
Child developed pneumonia.
7½ months Doctor in attendance. District Nurse sent
in. Child developed pneumonia.
1 year 9 months Doctor in attendance. District Nurse sent
in. Child developed pneumonia.
Case occurring in hospital—
Child aged 11 months. Developed pneumonia.
It should be noted that all were certified as dying from pneumonia.
The control of Measles, with a view to a reduction in the number
of deaths, and the occurrence of sequelae, has been the subject of consideration
for many years, and various methods of dealing with the
disease have, from time to time, been tried.
At the time of the passing of the Public Health (London) Act,
1891, the question as to the desirability of adding Measles to the list
of infectious diseases notifiable, was much to the fore. Some of the
London Sanitary Authorities then resolved that Measles should be so
included, but the Local Government Board at that time withheld their
consent. The experiment of notification had been in operation in
Edinburgh for a period of 10 years, and the experience of the Medical
Officer of Health of that City was not favourable to notification "as a
means of checking the disease." (Health Report, Hampstead, 1891.)
At periods, Hampstead has had its epidemics of Measles; thus, in
1896, the Medical Officer of Health in commenting on the outbreak that
year, remarked on the fact that the disease was "too often regarded with
indifference by parents, and suffered to run its course unheeded, as one
of the inevitable diseases of child life," and he then pointed out that he
had long made the observation that Measles "is only fatal to the
children of the working and labouring classes," a fact which he thought
pointed "to a want, either of care or means, in the treatment of this
disease."
The Public Health Committee of the late Vestry of Hampstead