Report on the outbreak of plague at Sydney [1900-1907] / by J. Ashburton Thompson, Chief Medical Officer of the Government and President of the Board of Health.
- New South Wales. Department of Public Health
- Date:
- 1900-1908
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Report on the outbreak of plague at Sydney [1900-1907] / by J. Ashburton Thompson, Chief Medical Officer of the Government and President of the Board of Health. 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.
121/452 page 3
![Part I.—The Epidemic. 10. The last case of the epidemic of 1900 was notified on 9tli August of tliat year. An interval of rather more than fifteen months ensued, during Avhich careful watch was kept for commencement of the recurrence which was feared; but among the many cases Avhich were reported for diagnosis during its continuance, there were but two which afforded good ground for prima facie suspicion, and after investigation it was shown that both were due to stre])tococcic infection. The rats which infested the areas on which cases had arisen were also watched until it appeared probable that the epizootic of })lague which had prevailed among them had died out. 11. That long interval was determined l)y attack of a man on 4th November, 1901; his case was notified on 12th November. A free term of thirty-four days ensued, and then, on 8th December, a second man was attacked. After a further free term of about thirty-five days, a woman fell ill on 10th or lltli January, 1902. During these two intermissions several cases of illness were reported for diagnosis, but no case of plague, nor any in which there was real ground for doubt, was among them. The epidemic declared itself with the third case, and, as the last patient was attacked on 8th June, it maybe referred to conveniently as the epidemic of 1902. It consisted of 139 cases, of which 39 ended fatally, and is the subject of the present account. 12. On 6th August, however, one furtlier case occurred at Newcastle. It was indigenous to that city, but, thanks to the measures immediately taken it remained solitary, and the danger to which that important seaport had been exposed was averted. It is separately described below. Management of the Epidemic. 13. Management of the epidemic rested with the Board of Health. Mr. Edmund Eosbery, C.M.G., who had been appointed by tlie Board to act as President during my absence on leave, and the Principal Assistant Medical Officer of the Government and Micro-Biologist to the Board (Dr. Erank Tidswell, M.B., D.P.H.), who at the same time had taken up the duties of the chief executive j)ost, occupied those positions at its beginning. I resumed control on 7th March. 14. The mctliod of management differed essentially from that actually followed in 1900 in three important respects. Eirst, in 19D0 we had pointed out, in the course of our report on the case of A.P. (Case 1), dated 7th Eebruary, that the Coast Hospital was the only suitable place to which plague cases could be sent for isolation, and treatment, and had repeated this recommendation several times during the earlier part of the epidemic. Secondly, we had announced, on 2nd March (Case 5), that it was unnecessary to segregate contacts, and that for the future Ave should, as a rule, remove only the sick from dwellings. Tliirdly, on 23rd March (Case 32), we had so far expressed our opinion as regards probable diffusion of infection by merchandise as to give instructions ihat tlie latter might be removed in the ordinary course of trade from the Adelaide Bond, which stood on that infected area which was the first to be quarantined for cleansing. But tlie head of the Government of the day declined these several advices; and, as a matter of fact, patients were strictly isolated in the buildings, utterly inadequate to this purpose, and accessible with difiiculty, which alone the Maritime Quarantine Station at North Head afforded, all contacts were segregated at the same place, and cleansing areas were as strictly closed, or quarantined, during cleansing as physical circumstances permitted. 15. ' In 1902 our advice was implicitly accepted ; and consequently, as regards the three points mentioned, Ave did as Ave had wished to do in 1900. Eirst, the sick Avere sent to Avards Avithin the Infectious Diseases Division of the Coast Hospital, Avherc they Avere dealt Avith almost exactly as though they had been suffering from measles or from some other of the commoner infectious fevers; the only difference Avas that visitors, though discouraged, Avere more freely admitted than would have been the case had the disease been measles in fact. No other special precaution was taken than that of rendering the wards rat-proof ; and the general economy of the hospital Avas disturbed only by the number of patients suffering from this one disease for whom](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21354704_0121.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
