What was it like fighting measles before vaccine? 1918 article warns of disease
Walk through an old cemetery and the tragic sight of small grave stones marking the final resting places of children is a common sight. Childhood mortality was commonplace from the early 1900s and earlier.
When parents of the 1950s and 60s were given the chance to vaccinate their children against potentially fatal childhood illnesses they took advantage of the highly publicized inoculations.
The sense of relief was real with the generation before — I grew up knowing older family members who had endured life-long injury from diseases like polio.
Today severe consequences of childhood illnesses are being seen again where science skepticism has taken hold.
Humans relate to story and anecdote told by the fireside but have a harder time with applying critical statistical analysis to real life choices.
Given the choice of a convincing story told around the campfire and an empirical table of data, most people relate to the story more than the numbers.
And sadly in some cases gathering accurate health data is being threatened by cutbacks in the only workforce charged with collecting and making sense of it. How do we address firefighter cancer rates, pregnancy risks and a host of other questions if no one is gathering the baseline information?
It is ironic that today’s anti-science digital storytelling was enabled by the scientists who invented the internet and devices that navigate it. The digital fireside has a lot of stories of questionable origin.
Also ironic that people who distrust numbers and secretive organizations are fed information via a mathematical algorithm. Social media companies have an incentive to keep clients engaged and enraged but not accurately informed.
The mission of most subscription-based sources is weighted toward accuracy but having a paywall limits the number of viewers.
As satirist Jonathan Swift said; “Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it.”
And the visual storytelling that often accompanies vaccinations is cringe inducing.
It is almost impossible to take pictures of the actual story, prevention, the absence of disease.
The most common images, someone getting stuck with a sharp needle, accompanying stories since the 1950s, isn’t an inviting calling card.
Sadly in 1918, there was little medicine could offer at the time for many illnesses except ride it out.
In the late 1910s, the Daily Telegram carried a women’s page with the tag lines “You and your friends” and “Women who are doing things.”
It carried a mix of news on fashion, health and organization activities. It also had advertising that recognized that women had control of key buying decisions.
The page had advice for the person who would most likely be the household caregiver should a health crisis hit.
This story ran March 15, 1918, as World War I was raging in Europe. The movement of troops would facilitate the transmission of contagious illness.
The four decks of headlines of the day have been edited here since they just repeat the story.
Never have measles been so prevalent
Never before in the history of the state, according to Dr. W.H. Kellogg, secretary of the California State Board of Health, have measles and German measles been so prevalent.
During 1917 there were 23,500 cases of these diseases reported to the State Board of Health, and during January and February of this year not less than 9,000 cases of these diseases have been reported.
While nearly all cases have been of a very mild type, occasionally the disease has appeared in a very severe form.
Since most fatal cases of measles occur in children under five years age, parents should take special care in protecting very young children from becoming infected.
The best way to control measles is to isolate all cases as soon as suspicious symptoms occur.
The chief difficulty in the control of the disease lies in the fact that it is more “catching” in the early stages before any rash appears. Prompt isolation, however, helps to reduce the prevalence of the disease.
The State Board of Health does not advise closing the schools during an epidemic of measles, provided a system of inspection of school children is maintained.
The best results are obtained through keeping the schools open and excluding all pupils who show any early symptoms of illness, such as fever, sore throat, or the symptoms of a common cold.
The regulations of the board require the isolation of all cases of measles and German measles.
Health officers and citizens should comply with these regulations in order that the wide prevalence of these diseases may be reduced. The presence of measles among our soldiers will not help to win the war.
