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21
This is usually a disease of the winter and spring months,
but during the month of June a substantial secondary outbreak
occurred with 70 cases per week which declined to 7 cases weekly
by the middle of September.
Measles is usually a very mild disease but it can prove severe
in very young or weakly children. It is spread by a filtrable virus
borne by droplet spray entering the nose and throat.
The intense coughing, sneezing and watering of the eyes in
the early stages resembles the common cold, and the sufferer has
many opportunities to spread the condition.
Children with these symptoms should be isolated, medical
care obtained, and the blotchy rash looked for on the fourth day of
illness.
Temporary protection can be obtained by use of "immune
globulins" or "placental extracts" in special cases, such as a
very ailing child exposed to severe risk of the disease, but no successful
method of long term active immunisation has yet been
discovered.
Pneumonia.
Pneumonia remains far and away the most fatal of the
infectious diseases. The number of cases notified has considerably
increased in recent years; from 59 in 1935 to 174 in 1950.
It is believed that the increase is largely due to more complete
returns. In 1935 only the most severe cases were notified, so that
there were 63 deaths recorded, 4 more than the number of cases
notified.
Modern chemotherapy has greatly improved the outlook in
this disease. Deaths are now usually found only in the very young
or those in the later years of life.
Of the 89 deaths in 1949, 4 occurred between the ages of 1—45.
In 1935 with only 63 deaths, 13 occurred in this age group.
The prognosis in cases of acute primary pneumonia is greatly
affected by the general resistance and nutrition of the patient.
The improved physique, increased temperance and better health
of the present generation should eventually lead to a marked fall
in these mortality figures.
There were 7 cases of influenzal pneumonia with 2 deaths
during the year. 77 Deaths from acute primary pneumonia were
reported.