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school on May 6th (Friday); on the same evening the child
developed the initial symptoms of Measles, and by Monday the
rash had appeared. This was the only case that occurred in the
school, though only eight out of a class of 22 were protected by
a previous attack of Measles.
Two cases also occurred in Beaumont Park Infants Department,
and in both instances the children were last at school on
May 13th (Friday). Before the following Monday the initial
symptoms of Measles had appeared, and they were kept away
from school. No further cases occurred. One of the classes
was particularly well protected, and 43 out of 49 children had
previously had Measles, but in the other, 21 out of a class of 47
were unprotected.
It is of course a drastic measure to close a whole department
on the occurrence of a single case of Measles, but if a case
occurs in the middle of a week, and subsequently attends school
whilst in an infectious state, the only chance of success lies in
the closing of that class. A history of the outbreak of Measles
in the latter part of the year will show the efficacy of school
closure on the appearance of an early case in a class. The
closure was rendered less difficult owing to the proximity of the
Christmas Holidays.
A further history of this outbreak will be given in a
subsequent report, but it may be mentioned that no further
cases had occurred when this report was written (February 24th).
WHOOPING COUGH.
Twenty deaths occurred from Whooping Cough. Three of
the deaths occurred in the North-East Ward, one in the NorthWest,
four in the South-East, and twelve in the South-West
Wards. Nine of the deaths were in children under twelve
months old, and ten were in children between the ages of one
and five years. The age of the persons attacked constitute one
of the chief difficulties in the control of the disease. We have
no means of ascertaining to what extent the disease is prevalent