Report of the Medical Officer of Health, Cairo City.

  • Egypt. Cairo City Health Inspectorate.
Date:
[1916]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Medical Officer of Health, Cairo City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/186 (page 1)
    REPORT OF TIIE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH, CAIRO CITY, FOR 1915 AND 1916. I.—INTRODUCTION. The circumstances which have led to the unusual arrangement adopted in this report of dealing with two years conjointly call for some explanation. Following on the outbreak of the European War in 1914, there ensued, for the Inspec¬ torate, a period of considerable strain, when additional duties had to be undertaken by a staff weakened by the departure of certain of its European members, called up for the military services of their respective countries. Throughout 1915, and, to a less extent, subsequently, the continued arrivals of fresh military units, ignorant of the country, its resources and capabilities, and consequently requiring local advice and information in the most diverse directions, resulted in the Inspectorate accidentally drifting into the position of a general information bureau, which, more especially in 1915, threw a considerable strain on this office. The assistance called for was naturally mostly in connection with matters of public health, and consisted chiefly in supplying the medical personnel of the various units with local information bearing on sanitary work, and with advice on difficulties emerging from their lack of local experience, though the appeals were far from being entirely confined to this. The amount of work thus involved in direct dealings with individual units, eventually, in the aggregate, became so onerous as to call for alleviation by the substitution of some more satisfactory arrangement, and an attempt was made to have individual applications for assistance diverted through the usual official channels, though, for a long time, with but little result. During this period, at the request of the Military Authorities, the general supervision of the sanitary arrangements, and the medical inspection of the prisoners of war camps then being established were, in addition, taken over by us, and this with the necessity of arranging for the hospitalization of the infectious sick of the army, of supplementing the existing military facilities for disinfection by undertaking part of such work, and of providing for the conveyance of wounded prisoners of war from the hospital trains to Qasr el 'Aini and the Red Crescent hospitals, still further added to the calls made on the Inspectorate at that time over and above its usual civil duties. Superimposed on this, an exceptionally extensive prevalence of infectious disease amongst the civil population, particularly in 1915, contributed to a position which rendered impossible any close adherence to those routine measures here so essential to administrative control, and thus tended to wreck the whole working organization of the office. Under such circumstances it became necessary to concentrate on essentials, and, for the time being, to quit such duties as had the least vital and direct bearing on the general public health. In 1916 the position improved. The demands for assistance by the Military Authorities gradually diminished, and this, with a lessened prevalence of infectious disease amongst the civil population, resulted in a considerable easing of the conditions. Questions, however, which had been shelved from the previous year then came up for consideration, and a certain amount of additional work, resulting from postponed inspections and inquiries, had to be dealt with. It was therefore considered inopportune to attempt, at the time, to draw up any note on the public health conditions of the previous year, and it was decided in consequence to postpone the issue of any report for the year 1915, and to include this subsequently with that of the following year. In consequence of this a combined report for the two years 1915 and 1916 is now issued. l