Hong Kong : bubonic plague memorandum on the treatment of patients in their own homes and in local hospitals.

Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hong Kong : bubonic plague memorandum on the treatment of patients in their own homes and in local hospitals. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/48 page 12
    to find that so far as it went the result of the experiment was apparently in its favour to the extent of 1:83 per cent. In noting this result the disabilities of the system of local treat- ment as tried by me must be considered. I have stated that the prescriptions given by the Chinese doctors are good, so far as they go. But with the administration of medicine the care of the average ‘Chinese practitioner ceases, and the question of nourishment and all the assuagements that come under the head of nursing are neglected. The sufferers in my district would take no medicine save the usual prescription given by the Chinese doctor, which they obtained from the local druggist. The doctor, at my request, prescribed port wine, and beef tea, both of which I had supplied to the druggist, who was one of the most active members ‘of the Kai-fong, and anxious to do anything in his power that might increase the chances of recovery. But the patients refused to take them, and I found them having nothing but rice, or congee, which is water thickened with rice flour. In Kennedy Town I understand that patients take the nourishment ordered for them without diffi- culty, and I am of opinion that with properly equipped local hospitals under proper supervision andi with trained nurses the mortality would be sensibly diminished. 19. We found it difficult, to trace the means of infection. The immunity of people living, sometimes for several days, in the same room went far to disprove the theory of contact. With the exception of Chu Kom and Wong Sam from No. 4 Sheung Fung Lane none of the people of that house who were attacked worked together, or partook of the same food. Four- teen. days after Sheung Fung Lane had been cleansed out f directed 'that as many fleas, bugs, &c., as could be found should be sent to the Government Bacteriologist for examination. A number of bugs and a spider were found, and on the 10th June, Dr. Hunter reported that in both bugs and spider were found plague bacilli. At the same time jhe reported as the result of examination of a number of bugs, flies, and fleas from No. 4, Sheung Fung Lane, where several cases of plague had arisen, that no bacilli were found. Again, after the death of the two boys who lived on the first floor of 109 Second Street, bugs were procured from the first floor and from the ground floor. Dr. Hunter reported that in the two (bugs from the first floor no bacilli were found, but a number of bugs from the ground floor were found infected with several plague bacilli. During a visit to the Plague ‘Hospital at Kennedy Town, I observed a large number of flies in one ward, numbers of which had settled on the patients. I directed that a number should be sent for examination. On the 9th July, Dr. Hunter reported that the majority of the flies were plague-infected. He re- ported at the same time that several cockroaches caught in a stall in the Central Market contained B. pestis. On the 1st June it was reported that fowls from the Western Market were found to have died of plague, and as the poorer classes of
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3