Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1887 — The Spread of Measles. [ARTICLE]

The Spread of Measles.

Dr. James B. Taylor, Chief of the Bureau of Contagious Diseases of New York, says that the alarming spread of the measles is due to a widespread belief among parents that measles are harmless, and that it is better for their children to have the measles when they are young. Holding this theory, the Doctor says parents do not make any efforts when one of their children is attacked with the disease to isolate the child, but permit the others to go near and probably sleep with it. In this way the other children not only contract the disease themselves, but carry it to school or among their mates and thus give it to others. The great danger to be feared from measles in cold weather, the Doctor says, is that it may lead to bronchitis or pneumonia and thus prove fatal.