Annual medical and sanitary report / Uganda Protectorate.

  • Uganda Protectorate. Medical Department
Date:
[1916]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual medical and sanitary report / Uganda Protectorate. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    12. Infected rats are still reported in the vicinity of the Bazaar but the percentage of rats caught which show plague bacilli is now very small. There have been very few* human cases at Jinja as compared with Kampala and the number is on the decrease. The Senior Medical Officer attributes this to the inoculation of practically the whole permanent population. 13. Sixty-three cases have occurred up to December 31st with 54 deaths. 14. An Indian who left the Jinja Bazaar and went to Namasagali shortly after contracted the disease. 15. At Kampala no cases of the true pneumonic type were observed but there was a large percentage of the septicsemic type which shewed no buboes but in which, in nearly all cases, the diagnosis was confirmed microscopically by smears of blood or spleen smears. 16. At Jinja a few pneumonic ca.ses were recorded. 17. The anti-plague serum in some cases failed to confer immunity especially among those who had been inoculated for more than two months. Some of the serum was old material obtained from Bombay in 1914. Preventive Measures Taken. Kampala and Port Bell. (1) . The Port and the Town of Kampala were promptly declared infected so as to enforce the rules made under the Infectious Diseases Ordinance. (2) . Patients were isolated and contacts segregated. (3) . To effect this the two barbed-wire enclosures which were intended for Entebbe, but had been requisitioned by the military authorities for the internment of German prisoners, were erected at Kampala in addition to the two already established. (4) . The import into Port Bell of seed cotton, coffee and hides was prohibited. (Latterly when the coffee curing factory had been disinfected and cleared the embargo on coffee was removed.) (5) . The Pier has been closed to all persons, including both incoming and outgoing passengers, except those provided with special passes or certificates of recent inoculation. (6) . Ships were not allowed alongside the pier at night. (7) . The export and import of all merchandise on passenger ships (not including passenger’s luggage) was prohibited from 6th to 16th November by a special rule proclaimed under the Ordinance till the goods remaining on the infected pier could be removed in lighters and the pier and goods shed cleared and disinfected. (8) . Inoculation with Haffkin’s serum of the inhabitants of the town, port and surroundings was performed to the number of over 20,000 persons. No difficulty was experienced in persuading the people to be inoculated and a much larger number could have been thus protected but that the supply from Bombay is limited. (9) . Barriers, guarded by special police, were erected on all roads leading to the town of Kampala and no persons or merchandise allowed to leave the town unless provided with a pass. (10) . The cotton ginneries were closed down and a certain store of infected cotton seed burnt. (11) . Rat traps and poison were distributed and rat drives instituted in the town and rewards offered of three cents per rat. (12) . As the epidemic increased rapidly in the Bazaar, all shops were closed on October 13th for ten days. (13) . The whole Bazaar was thoroughly cleansed, heaps of timber, vegetation and rubble removed from back compounds and several old houses pulled down and disinfectants liberally distributed.