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20
Measles.
The difficulty of becoming aware of the existence of any
epidemic of this disease is considerable, owing to it not being a
notifiable disease under the Infectious Diseases Act. The fact
has been recognised by the School Board, and in order that the
Sanitary Authorities should become acquainted with any marked
absence of scholars owing to this disease, the school teachers
have been requested to inform Medical Officers of Health from
time to time ; in this way in the early part of the year we became
aware that there was an epidemic of measles in the neighbourhood
of South Grove Schools. The Sanitary Inspector and
myself visited the houses of the children who were away from
school, and such a large proportion of these children were suffering
from this disease that I reported to the Sanitary Committee
the advisability of closing the school for a time, with the view
to stopping the spread of the disease. The Committee resolved
to act upon Article 88 of the Educational Code, which states:
" The Managers must at once comply with any notice of the
" Sanitary Authority of the district in which the school is
" situated, or any two members acting on the advice of the
" Medical Officer of Health, requiring them for a specified time,
" with a view to preventing the spread of disease, either to close
" the school or to exclude any scholar from attendance, but after
" complying they may appeal to the Department if they consider
" the notice to be unreasonable." The necessary report was
made to the Educational Department and the school was closed
for some weeks.
Some months after another epidemic broke out in the neighbourhood
of St. Paul's School, which necessitated the closure of
this school for a time. The Infants' department of Redman's
Road school was also closed for a time for the same purpose.
From observation and enquiry the promptness of closing these
schools stopped the spread of the disease. The number of fatal
cases occurring during the year was 90, a much larger number
than in previous years; the greater part of these died from chest
complaints following measles.