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56
On the re-opening of the Schools there remained but a few outstanding
cases, and in November only two school children were reported as
suffering from the disease.
The difficulty of controlling Measles and preventing its spreading
among school children is well known, and the measures of former
years have again been relied upon.
Those suffering and contacts are excluded from school, but under
certain conditions other children from infected homes are admitted to
school, and to avoid misunderstanding, the following instructions were
issued to the Attendance Officers:—
No child from a Measles infected house can attend any infants' school.
No child under ten years of age who has not had Measles can attend
any school if coming from a Measles infected house.
Children who have had Measles or are over ten years of age may
attend a junior mixed or boys' or girls' school.
Special care should be taken that no child attends school from a
Measles infected house unless the sufferer is properly isolated.
As about 90 per cent. of the deaths from Measles occur in children
under five years of age, and as but few children over ten years contract
the disease, I considered exclusion on the foregoing lines as efficacious
as school closure in this district, where the children's playground is
invariably the street
Exclusion of all the children from an infected house was not deemed
necessary, as those who already had Measles were not likely to again
contract the disease or to bring infection to others.
By excluding only those likely to suffer or whose home conditions
were bad, the average school attendance was not so seriously reduced
as if all contacts were so treated.
It is regrettable that these exclusions cannot be made without
entailing monetary loss to the Education Authority, and that in practice
it should be a financial gain in grant to close a school rather than keep
it open.
The death-rate from Measles was .27 per 1,000 or half that of the
“76 Great Towns"; the death-rate from Whooping Cough was .01
as compared with .04 in 1907, and .07 for the "Great Towns" in
England and Wales.