Enter the King

The child seems to have a bad cold. He coughs & sneezes, his nose runs, so do his eyes. He is feverish. His neck is swollen, throat sore, tongue furry. At this point an experienced parent or doctor will suspect measles. After a blotchy red rash appears, the veriest tyro knows it.

Medical men have learned a good deal about measles, king of childhood diseases. Because it is very contagious, measles gets around most easily and fastest in cities. The nation's biggest city, New York, had its biggest measles year in 1938 (also the worst ever recorded for the U. S. as a whole). Last week, when 4,252 new cases were reported, it looked as though 1941 would be another big year for New York, with 20,000 cases since Jan. 1. The big measles season: January to April.

The death rate from measles itself is very small. New York's 20,000 cases by week end yielded only six deaths. But every severe case of measles is accompanied by bronchitis, which may turn into bronchopneumonia. Other complications to be guarded against: eye and ear infections, colitis, brain abscess, stirring up inactive tuberculosis. The mortality is highest in children under three. School age is the ideal time to have measles. Once a child has had it, he is almost always immune thereafter.

Measles is transmitted by a tiny virus which was made visible under the microscope in 1937 with a stain called nigrosin. Last year a successful vaccine was announced. It will be useful to protect boys going into the Army from remote rural districts, where they have never had measles or acquired natural immunity. Many such boys in World War I died of pneumonia, brought on by measles,

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