Volume 1

Report on the origin and spread of typhoid fever in U.S. military camps during the Spanish War of 1898 / by Walter Reed, Victor C. Vaughan and Edward O. Shakespeare.

  • Walter Reed
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Report on the origin and spread of typhoid fever in U.S. military camps during the Spanish War of 1898 / by Walter Reed, Victor C. Vaughan and Edward O. Shakespeare. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    53/778 (page 29)
    111 the National Guai'd this was a two-l:>attalion regi- ment. The Third Battalion was added after the regi- ment reached Chickamauga. The First and Second battalions went to Porto Rico via Charleston, and the Third went to Newport News, then to Camp Meade, and finally to Porto Rico. Condensed sick report of Companies B, M, L, and G', ronstitiiting the Third Battalion of the Sixteenth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantri/, front August S to August SI, 1898, with the Seeo7id Armij Corps. Mean strength 510 Typhoid fever 20 Chronic diarrhea 2 Acute gastritis I Intermittent malaria _ .'i Malaria 2 Gastro-enteritis 3 Other diseases 5 Total 3fi In September the Third Battalion left Camp Meade and went to Porto Rico. Condensed sick report of Companies B, M, L, and <l of tin- Sixteenth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, at Ponce, P. P., for the month of September. Mean strength 482 Typhoid fever 13 Gastro-enteritis 3 Enteritis 2 Gastritis 4 Malaria 23 Diarrhea i 4 Other diseases 6 Total 55 In this report Acting Assistant Surg. Joseph G. Wil- son in charge makes the following statement: I believe that the typhoid fever and malaria from which we have suffered were principally contracted at Chickamauga and Newiiort News. During the month this detachment has been at Camp Meade, Pa., and at Ponce, P. R. At the former place we had three privy sinks; each man was required to cover his own stool; guards were posted at these sinks to see that this order was obeyed. Each company was provided with a kitchen sink. The drinking water was ordered to be filtered. The dishes were washed in hot water after each«mess. Blankets were aired until 11.30 o'clock each miirning. Every tent had a board floor. En route from Camp Meade to Ponce there was a great deal of seasickness. I believe that the patients who were transferred to the general hospital at Ponce had their resisting power to disease diminished by the severe seasickness which prevailed and by the irregular times of eating, together with the poor quality of food served on board the transport Obdanu Since our arrival at Ponce we have all been drinking Avater boiled or filtered, and we use the same sanitary precautions that we used while at Camp Meade. There are no reports from the First and Second bat- talions after they left Chickamauga. It will thus be seen that our information concerning this regiment is exceedingly fragmentary. From the various hospital records we have been able to find 118 cases of probable typhoid fever from this regiment. Most of these are left imcomplete and still sick in hospital. Among the completed cases 1 deaths are reported. The only lesson that we are able to learn from this regiment is that the Third Battalion became infected quite seriously with typhoid fever at Chickamauga; it retained this infection at Newport News and at Camp Meade, and carried it to Porto Rico. To our minds this is proof quite positive that change in location is not sufHcient to relieve troops infected with typhoid fever of the disease. The infection is carried from camp to camp in the bodies of the soldiers, in their I clothes, and on their bedding and tents. After troops become ])adly infected witli typhoid fever the thorough disinfection of all their belongings is necessary in order to stamp out the disease. Summary. Assembled at Camp Hastings, Mount Gretna, Pa., in April, 1898. Mustered into United States service May 11, 1898. Arrived at Chickamauga Park May 17, 1898. Strength on arrival, 628. Date of first case of probable typhoid fever May 8, 1898. Date of first case of recognized typhoid fever .June 20, 1898. Left Chickamauga Park July 6, 1898. Sti'engtli on departure, 865. Number of cases of probable typhoid fever developed at Chick- amauga 17 It is more than proljable that this regiment developed i typhoid fever at Mount Gretna, Pa. The suspicious I cases up to Ma}' 17, 1898, are as follows: No. 1. Company A: Diarrhea, May 8 to June 15. No. 2. Company H: Diarrhea, May 10 to June 15. No. 3. Company K: Diarrhea, May 17 to June 2. Apparent]}' these sick men accompanied the regiment to Chickamauga. The absence of the July report leaves us without information concerning the etfect of the removtil to Charleston and Newport News upon the number of cases of typhoid fever. However, judging by the histories of other regiments that made the same move and by the subsequent histor}' of the Third Battal- ion of this regiment, we may be ([lute certain that the number of cases did not materially decrease. The Third Battalion carried the typhoid infection from Chicka- mauga to Newport News, then to Camp Meade, and later across the seas to Porto Rico. Tlie history of this Ixit- talion alone makes us skeptical of the belief held by some army medical otiicers that a command widely infected with typhoid fever loses this infection on mov- ing to an uninfected locality. We think that when other facts on these points have been gathered, fi'om a study of this disease it will be conclusively denion- i strated that the above-mentioned belief is erroneous.