View report page

25
MEASLES.
Nine of the cases were notified by private practitioners, 4 (each) by the Medical Officers of
the County Council and the Poor Law, 2 by the Physicians of the Western Ophthalmic Hospital,
and 1 (each) by those of St. Mary's and the Children's (Paddington Green) Hospitals.
It is generally recognised that the disease can be prevented in the majority of cases by the
adoption of suitable precautions (in the way of " eye toilet ") at the time the child is born.
Prima facie one would expect more cases to occur in connection with confinements which are
not attended by medical men. Last year, however, the cases were equally divided between
midwives and medical men (9 each, information as to the other 3 not being obtainable1!.
Three cases were proved to be gonorrhoeal, the gonococcus being found on microscopical examination.
It would doubtless save a good proportion of attacks if bacteriological examination
were resorted to prior to labour whenever the expectant mother was known to have any
discharge.
Five patients received treatment in Poor Law Institutions, and 9 in the Out-patients
Departments of Hospitals. Four children were attended by the Queen Victoria Nurses, 3 of
such children being out-patients of hospitals and one a private patient.
In one case only did any permanent damage to the eye (rupture of the globe) ensue, that
child succumbing to another disease before the end of the year. Two other children were also
known to have died, not of ophthalmia, before the end of the year. There was no known case of
spread to any other person, but in one case there was a history suggestive of the reported child
having been infected by an elder child (over a year old) in the same house.
MEASLES.
During the past year 1,281 cases of measles were reported to the Department, a number
considerably in excess of that anticipated. In addition there were 148 cases of German measles,
which disease is held to be the same as "measles" for administrative purposes. Below are the
figures for each quarter of the last six years, as derived from the weekly tabulation of reported
cases (German measles being included). The corrected annual totals relate to "measles " only.
Quarters
1.
2.
3.
4.
Totals
Uncorrected
. Corrected.
1906
105
204
199
89
597
592
1907
100
303
276
548
1,236
1,284
1908
413
301
32
74
820
779
1909
133
366
76
127
702
709
1910
571
1,066
72
389
2,098
2,085
1911
659
424
91
135
1,309
1,281
The house distribution was not markedly different from that noted in the preceding year,
having regard to the smaller number of cases, but there was a smaller proportion of houses with
exceptionally large numbers of cases. The 1,281 cases were reported from 721 houses, giving
an average of 1.7 cases per house, as compared with averages of 1.9, 1.8, and 1.6 in 1910, 1909,
and 1908. There were 561 secondary cases in all, equal to 43.7 per cent, of the total reported,
showing a somewhat lower proportion than in 1910 (46.8 per cent.) and in 1909 (44.9), but
higher than in 1908 (40.9). On the whole, it may be concluded that the disease had a slightly
lower infectivity than in 1910, but if the infectivity was lowered, the disease was, on the other
1906. 1907. 1908. 1909. 1910. 1911.
Houses with 2 cases 100 194 130 104 290 196
3 „ 48 97 55 55 164 97
4 „ 15 30 15 21 55 36
5 „ 4 19 6 9 22 13
6 „ — 7 — — 7 2
„ 7 „ 1 2 — 1 6 —
„ 8 „ — 1 _ — 1 —
9 „ — - 1 — 1 -