German Measles
Today, I only have a sad story for you. These are beautiful twin girls, Iva and Ada Wright. They were born about 1905 to Christopher Columbus Wright and Ava Pearl Morgan.
Sadly, the twins, along with their older sister Faye, died from German measles. They were not even two years old yet when they succumbed to the childhood disease.
German Measles (aka Rubella) is a disease caused by a virus. Most people who get rubella usually have a mild illness, with symptoms that can include a low-grade fever, sore throat, and a rash that starts on the face and spreads to the rest of the body.
German physician Friedrich Hoffmann first described the disease in 1740. He and a group of German doctors distinguished the virus from measles and scarlet fever. However, it wasn’t until 1881 that it was formally recognized as an individual entity in 1881, at the International Congress of Medicine in London.
The twins were said to have died from Rubella, but I suspect they died from measles. Here is why. Measles is more deadly. Between roughly 1855 and 2005, measles is estimated to have killed about 200 million people worldwide. Rubella hits pregnant women and unborn babies the hardest. The twins were at least a year old when they died.
In 1914, a statistician for an insurance company estimated from a survey of 22 countries that 1% of all deaths in the temperate zone were caused by measles. He observed also that 1–6% of cases of measles ended fatally, the difference depending on age (0–3 being the worst), social conditions (e.g. overcrowded tenements) and pre-existing health conditions.
Unfortunately, the Wright family was hit hard by the childhood viruses. They lost three children within a short period of time.
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Thank you for reading.
Jenny Findsen