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so serious an epidemic last year in different parts of the country proved that, under
present social conditions, no measures have yet been devised for the effectual
control or prevention of Measles. The special difficulties in the way of controlling
Measles have led some workers to regard the disease as beyond the scope of our
present administrative methods and to question the efficacy, on a really extensive
scale, of any method short of the application of a protective inoculation, which
shall do for Measles what Vaccination has done for Smallpox.
In 1911, 291 deaths were registered as due to Measles ; but before we deal with
the special features of the recent epidemic, it may be of interest to trace briefly the
history of the disease in the Borough since 1890.
This survey, I hope, will convince the Council of one important fact : that,
in spite of improvements, which are noticeable in other directions, there is still a
deplorable sacrifice of life upon the altar of this disease.
For purposes of comparison, Stepney is more fortunate than most centres of
population. If the relative incidence of Measles on certain age-groups be considered,
it will be found that the mortality from the disease falls heaviest on
children under five years of age. Throughout the kingdom the birth-rate has been
steadily and continuously diminishing during the last quarter of a century, and
consequently, the proportion of children under five years of age to the entire population
is now less than it formerly was. Where a falling birth-rate has been in progress,
a comparison of the death-rate from Measles extending over a number of years
would be fallacious. On the other hand, in Stepney, up to 1908, the birthrate
remained fairly constant. The cause of this high birth-rate has been explained in
this and previous reports. Owing to various causes, the age-constitution of the
population of Stepney has changed, and the relative number of women between
the ages of 15 and 45 has increased. This accounts for the apparent constancy of
the birth-rate, but if the rate be expressed as the ratio of births to the number of
married women of child-bearing age, the same phenomenon would be observed
here as in the rest of the kingdom. The final results of the census have not been
published, and it is impossible to give the number of persons living at each agegroup,
but in view of the high birth-rate which has obtained in the Borough, the
relative proportion of children under five years of age has probably not altered to
any appreciable extent.
The following chart shows the number of deaths from Measles per 100,000
inhabitants since 1890:—