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considered, more than once, the desirability of adding Measles to the
list of infectious diseases, but it was felt that, having regard to the
general susceptibility to Measles, the young ages at which the children
are attacked, and the highly infectious pre-eruptive stage, when it is
difficult to distinguish the complaint from an ordinary catarrh, it did
not appear that the advantages to be gained were adequate, or that
public opinion was ripe for the measure. At that time the Hospitals
of the Metropolitan Asylums Board were not available for cases of
Measles, and it was felt that with notification must go hospital isolation.
The severity of the outbreak at the end of 1897 and the beginning
of 1898 was marked; I find from the records that no less than 24
children died in the first quarter of the latter year, and various schools
were closed from the February until the 5th March, after which period
Hampstead was not much troubled with the disease, which disappeared
in the month of April. The London County Council at that time
sought to learn the views of the London Sanitary Authorities, as to
adding Measles to the list of dangerous infectious diseases, in order that,
if necessary, parents who sent their children to school when suffering
from Measles, might be proceeded against, and with this proposal the
Vestry agreed.
In 1903 the London County Council obtained the approval of the
Local Government Board to include Measles amongst the dangerous
infectious diseases, in so far as Sections 60-65, 68-70, 72-74 of the
Public Health (London) Act, 1891, apply. These Sections, while they
did not make the disease compulsorily notifiable, extended to it provisions
relating to isolation and disinfection.
School closure was resorted to in 1905 by the Education Department
of the London County Council, and disinfection of the School
premises was carried out by the Borough Council.
The closing of the big elementary schools with the object of preventing
the spread of infectious disease has not, however, been practised
in later years. Among the disadvantages of closure are the failure
to obtain information as to the occurrence of fresh cases, and also the
impossibility of inspecting children with a view to ascertaining if there
be suspicious or hitherto unrecognised cases. Again, even when schools
are closed, there yet remain perhaps more important factors in the
spread of infection, e.g., association in play at home or elsewhere, and
in places of amusement, cinemas, &c.