Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1904 — AN EPIDEMIC IN NEW YORK. [ARTICLE]

AN EPIDEMIC IN NEW YORK.

Thousands of Cases of Measles in All Parts of the Metropolis. According to the New York commissioner of health the metropolis is now suffering the worst epidemic of measles In its historj'. From April 1 to April 25, Inclusive, 3,166 cases of measles have been reported to the health department, while the records of tho preceding months since the beginning of Winter were equally high. On tiie east side and in other congested sections of the city there are undoubtedly many more cases that have not been reported. How portentous these figures are may be gathered from the fact that in the corresponding period of last year there were only 504 cases. The largest daily number then was 46, whereas this year —jn April alone—it was 185. The lowest daily record for this month thus far is 105, as against 10 for April, 1903. While measles is not necessarily fatal, physicians agree that there is too much disposition by citizens in general to treat the disease with carelessness. In such cases, they say, other diseases of far graver nature may easily develop aud cause the death of the patient. Pneumonia is tho ailment most easily contracted by patients suffering from measles who have been subjected to exposure or in other ways not given proper care and treatment, but it is not the only one, and there have been many cases of death during the present epidemic due to various diseases directly traceable to measles in the beginning.