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38
MEASLES.
Notification Statistics. The number of notifications of
measles received during the year was 2,698, as compared with
481 in 1921. This is the largest number of cases coming, to
the knowledge of the Department in any year since the
formation of the Borough. The disease assumed epidemic
proportions about the beginning of March and continued as
such until the end of June. In each of seven weeks over 150
cases were discovered.
During recent years attention has repeatedly been drawn
to the seriousness of measles which not only causes many
deaths in young children, but in less serious cases leads to
grave ill-health in after life. The seriousness of this disease
is not generally appreciated by the public, and as measles is
not a notifiable disease, our efforts to minimise its effects are
seriously handicapped. In most of the London Boroughs
we are almost entirely dependent on the school service for
information regarding its prevalence.
In 1921 a conference was held between Metropolitan
Boroughs and the London County Council in order to devise
means to develop the most efficient organisation available for
dealing with this disease, particularly as the success of the
nursing work of the Borough Councils is largely dependent
on the earliest possible recognition of this disease. It is
pleasing to record that as a result of this conference more
cases are coming to the knowledge of the Department and are
coming earlier than they used to do. It cannot be said that
much advantage is gained by the original notification, because
delay is inevitable, but it cannot be too strongly emphasized
that the benefit of this earlier notification lies in the fact
that secondary cases are under observation much earlier
and the necessary steps for diminishing the severity of the
disease can be taken in advance. In the course of the epidemic