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is safe for the child to be at school, the period of exclusion could be
reduced to a fortnight; otherwise, it is not safe for the child to
return under three weeks. The rule could be made to read as
follows:—Children suffering from Measles must be excluded for a
period of three weeks from the appearance of the rash, unless a
medical certificate be obtained, when the child can return at the end
of a fortnight.
It was stated above that a lengthening of the inter-epidemic
period would in itself be the means of saving a number of lives, as
the incidence of attack is different to the incidence of death. The
following table gives the ages at death in this district in 1908:—
Under 1 year. 1—2. 2—3. 3—4. 4—5. 5—6. 6—7.
8 17 3 4 3 2 1
The ages of the cases reported and visited by ttie Sanitary
Authority were as follows:—
Under 1 year 1—2. 2—3. 3—4. 4—5. 5—6. 6—8. over 8.
10 17 9 9 14 159 80 38
The cases visited by us do not represent fairly the age incidence
of the disease in the district.
Practically, all the children of school age suffering from Measles
are reported, and most of the cases occurring in a house from
which a child attends school are included in the above table, but
if a case of Measles occurs in a house, and there are no other
children from that house attending school, we have no means of
ascertaining the existence of such a case.
For that reason the second table does not represent the true
incidence of attack in children under 5 years of age.
One point though, the table does make clear. The fatality of
the disease in children over 5 years of age is less than one per cent.
whilst the number of deaths from the disease in the second year of
life alone represents a mortality of more than one per cent. of the
children living in that age period. 1 he tables suggest that children
suffering from Measles in their second year of life, are specially liable
to succumb, and every measure which would effect a lengthening of
the interepidemic period would lower the death-rate from the disease.
But age is not the only factor which affects the fatality of the