Reports and papers on suspected cases of human plague in East Suffolk and on an epizootic of plague in rodents.

  • Great Britain. Local Government Board.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Reports and papers on suspected cases of human plague in East Suffolk and on an epizootic of plague in rodents. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    epidemic in India, notwithstanding the vastly greater accessi- bility of mankind for rat fleas ” (page 48). The examination was however, made in November, and it cannot be stated until after next summer whether the same comparative freedom of English rats from fleas holds good during the warmer months of the year. The Source of the East Anglian Epizootic. In his report. Dr. Bulstrode gives in detail all the available evidence as to the channels by which plague may have been introduced among the rodent population in the neighbourhood of the rivers Stour and Orwell. It is, I think, highly probable that it has been introduced by means of infected rats imported with foreign grain coming from plague-infected countries. No other instance of spread of plague from ship-rats beyond the limits of a port or landing place has been known to occur in this country, with the possible exception of Glasgow. This fact, considered in relation with the vast volume of the shipping trade between the United Kingdom and plague-infected countries, is reassuring; and shows that the precautions taken in this respect liave, in the main, sufficed for practical requirements. Had any other importations of rodent plague been siiccessful in producing inland foci of plague infection, there is little doubt that the resultant excessive mortality among rats would ere this have been discovered. This is es])ecially true, as regards the period since the discovery of infected rats in Suffolk. Tlie examination of rats, which has been made on a large scale in some of our largest ports, lias failed to discover any rats infected with plague, except on or in connection with ships arriving from abroad. These facts do not indicate any need for more stringent regulations for ships than those contained in the International Sanitary Convention of Paris, 1903, to the provi- sions of which this country has agreed. As regards the precautionary measures taken, under the Board’s Orders, against rats in our ports, the Board, from time to time, ascertain by “ Port Sanitary Survey,” conducted by their medical inspectors, the manner in which Port Sanitary Authorities secure the execution of these measures. Such a survey is in progress at the present time. The Possibilities of further Plague in East Anglia. Ihe evidence ajipears to indicate that rat plague has been present for several years in East Suffolk. Nevertheless, during that time only three very limited outbreaks of probable human plague have occurred, showing that under the conditions there existent, human infection is an exceptional and, as it were, an accidental phenomenon. As is well known, the possibilities of spread of plague from rats to man are much smaller in this country than in India. We have the brown and not the black rat; the brown rat is not a domestic animal; its fleas, so far as present information extends, are less numerous than those of the black rat, and not more than half of them in investigations so far undertaken are of a kind that bites man; and most houses are not rat-intested.