View report page

17
Meaales.
1958 was a year of substantial increase in the incidence of measles There
were 2,695 notifications, as against 1,766 the previous year, and this is the
third largest total of cases in any post-war year, being exceeded only to a
slight degree in 1955, and by a somewhat greater margin in 1951, as shown in the
diagram on page 18 As is customary, over half of the children affected were
under the age of five years, but fortunately only a small proportion were under
the age of twelve months. There are no active measures of immunisation which can
yet be adopted against measles. It will be apparent from the chart of the course
of the outbreak during the year that the highest Incidence was in mid. summer.
Measles began to increase in February and cases reached a peak in June, after
which the incidence diminished rapidly to a low level by September