Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1913 — MANY NEW CASES OF MEASLES REPORTED [ARTICLE]

MANY NEW CASES OF MEASLES REPORTED

Six Cases in the Primary Grades, Some of the Children Being Sick in the School Room. The measles, whooping cough and. mumps are all scattered about Rensselaer, and especially are the measles in a large number of families. Six nesw cases were reported from the three primary grades this Thursday morning, all of the children having been in the school room right up to the time of breaking out with the disease and some of them being sick in the school room. It is stated that for some time there has been a very lax enforcement of the quarantine rules and the result is that at this time measles and whooping cough are in every part of this city and two or three cases of mumps are reported. It has arrived at a point where the spread of the disease is certain to go farther and will be difficult to cope with, especially if the schools and public meetings are permitted to continue At the close of the schools this Thursday evening the three primary rooms in which recent casss have broken out will' be disinfected and every precaution taken there to prevent a spread of the disease, but the fact remains that all the pupils in those grades have already been exposed and will not only break out with the disease but carry it to others. While the diseases are comparatively harmless with children from 6 to 15, if they come one at a time, in combination they are very serious and whooping cough is especially hard on tig \ babies and it is feared more deaths will result if babies generally contract the disease. Parents are urged -to take..every precaution and to keep their child ren home from school when they are even slightly sick until the nature of the disease is ascertained. In the meantime the physicians should hold counsel and determine the number of cases and the advisability of closing the schools.