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warm to protect it from cold should it throw the bed-clothes off.
The patient is infectious for at least three weeks, and during this
time no other child should be permitted to enter the bedroom in
which the patient is isolated. Isolation should continue beyond
the three weeks if there be any cough, or discharge from the nose,
ears or eyes. These discharges are most infectious. They should
be received on bits of old linen or cotton wool and burnt. A
sheet wetted with disinfectant should be hung outside the door of
the sick room. Other children in the house should not attend
school or Sunday school unless they are certified by a Medical
man as free to do so, for at least 17 days after the last occasion
on which they came in contact with the patient, and in no case
during the period of isolation. At the end of the illness all
clothing and bed linen should be boiled or otherwise disinfected.
The walls should he cleansed and the floors scrubbed. The
windows and door should then be left wide open for several
hours. It is important to remember that the first symptoms of
Measles are those of a common cold, and that the rash does not
usually appear until the fourth day after the onset of these
symptoms. The disease is highly infectious during these three
days before the rash appears. Should these symptoms appear
among children in a household where anyone is suffering from
Measles, the children so affected should be kept away from the
others until the nature of the cold has been made clear.
WILLIAM BUTLER,
Medical Officer of Health.