Abstract of 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:
- 1900
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Abstract of 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.
144/270 page 120
![ri'om 2 lo 8 cases of this disease*. 'Fhe oripjin of typhoid fever at Camp Meade is tlierefore eleai-. For tlie course of the disease in tlie several organizations during the period August 15 to November 15, 1898, the period of occupancy of Camp Meade, the regimental history and the graphic charts should be consulted. From a study of tliese it will be seen, as we have already i-epeatedly had occasion to i-emark in our summary of regi- mental histories, that typhoid fever at Camp Meade, as elsewhere, consisted essentially of a series of company epidemics, each one having more or less perfectly its own individual characteristics. The dissimilarities in the time of beginning and the course of the company epidemics, as well as their ending, would appear to l>e incompatible with the assumption of a common, simultaneous, and more or le.ss continually acting agency as the chief means of origin and propaga- tion of typhoid fever. Reference to the graphic charts gives ample evidence of these truths, and it is not necessary to illustrate further by entering into details. The course of typhoid fever in the various companies forming the regiments of the First and Second Di\dsions of the Second Army Corps at Camp Meade, Pa., was such as to conclu- sively eliminate any contamination of the general or company water supply. We have already shown in the case of the Thirty-fifth Michigan, Fifteenth Minnesota, and Two hundred and third New York Infantry the result of oiir endeavors to ascertain the names of soldiers devel- oping typhoid fever as they weregroui^ed in their tents in the several camps. (For details see histories of these regiments.) Reference to the diagrams accomj)anying these regiments will show the manner in which the attacks of typhoid fever were grouped with regard to cer- tain tents. These squad groui^s of the sick, as plotted in their tents, would appear to suggest a mode of disseminating infection which effectively reached and acted upon certain limited groups of men while it passed by others. This would be, we think, entirely com- patible ^vith the assumption of a dominating tent, squad, or comrade infection. This would seem to hold true of any company epidemic which persists for any considerable time, whatever may have been the mode of the original infection. We have already stated under the head of general remarks that the general police of the regimental camp sites was excellent, and that the care of the company sinks, as regards the immediate covering of all excreta, was very satisfactory. We do not doubt that, notwithstanding these sanitary precautions, there were individual instances of what we have designated as sink infection, or that food was occasionally infected by flies. We believe, however, that squad or comrade infection was ]u'obably the most important factor concerned in the spread of typhoidfever at Camp Meade, Pa.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28063223_0144.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
