Report by Dr. R.J. Reece to the Local Government Board on smallpox and smallpox hospitals at Liverpool, 1902-1903.

  • Great Britain. Local Government Board.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report by Dr. R.J. Reece to the Local Government Board on smallpox and smallpox hospitals at Liverpool, 1902-1903. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    In the accompanying table (Table II.) is recorded, fortnight by fortnight, in the period 8th December, 1901, to 7th November, 1903—(a) The number of cases of smallpox in Liverpool which were removed to the three City smallpox hospitals* ; (6) the number of houses invaded by smallpox in the area within a mile of each hospital, and in certain subordinate zones ; (c) the number of houses invaded in the rest of the City, more than a mile from any of the hospitals ; (d) the rate of houses invaded by smallpox per 10,000 houses for each of the three hospital areas, and for the rest of the City excluding these areas. The invasion rate per 10,000 houses for the City of Liverpool and for each of the special areas within a mile radius of each of the three hospitals is also shown graphically in the Diagram I. ; the actual number of patients received into each of the three hospitals, separately and in the aggregate, is shown graphically in Diagram III. annexed. Study of the maps, of Table II., and of Diagram I. shows that in the earlier fortnights of smallpox prevalence in Liverpool the invaded houses were not only few in number but were usually separated from each other by long distances. One invaded house was situate in the Park Hill Hospital area (Map 1, 3rd fortnight), though this hospital was not at that time receiving patients. Also Map 1 (5th fortnight), shows three invaded houses in the Priory Road Hospital area ; and Map 2 shows that later (6th and 7th fortnights) two additional dwellings within this area were invaded by the disease, the rest of the invaded dwellings in the City being scattered at this time about the town,, and the Park Hill Hospital area having become affected. Priory Road Hospital. The period of increased activity of smallpox reception at the Priory Road Hospital, shown in Table II. in the fortnights 5-7, is followed a fortnight later (8th fortnight) by a rise in the invasion rate of the houses within one mile of this hospital, constituting (the hospital areas being excluded), an incidence considerably in excess of that for the City of Liverpool. A like special incidence on houses within one mile of hospital occurs in sequence to fort- nights 16,17,18, during which the number of acute cases in Priory Road Hospital again somewhat increased. Thus, in the 19th fortnight, the invasion rate of the houses in the special area here rose largely above that for the City. A similar state of things can be seen in fortnights 22 and 23. Thereafter the operations of the other hospitals which were now receiving patients tend to obscure the effect of operations of the Priory Road Hospital. But it will be observed from Table II., Maps 7-20, and Diagram I., that there continued to occur considerable incidence of smallpox within the special area of the Priory Road Hospital while that hospital continued in active receipt of acute cases. Study of Maps 6 and 7 is interesting. On Map 6 (24th fortnight), 26th October to 8th November, 1902, an invaded house (6th November) is seen in Conway Street, outside the Priory Road Hospital area, and in the 25th fort- night (9th to 22nd November), four additional houses appear as invaded in the immediate neighbourhood of this house. It was in one of these—28, Robsart Street—that a child was found on 12th November dying of smallpox. No doctor had been in attendance until the child was moribund, and it died before it could be removed to hospital. The result of this undetected and unnotified case is shown on Map 7, 23rd November to 6th December, by a group of some 24 invaded houses in the immediate neighbourhood of Robsart Street. The following three maps, Maps, 8, 9, and L0, 7th December, 1902, to 17th January, 1903, show the spread of smallpox in the locality of Robsart Street, and its diffusion over the City ; and, in sequence to the large number of acute cases received in the Priory Road Hospital in December, a special incidence on that hospital district. The immediate result of this influx of cases to the Priory Road Hospital was to swamp the available accommodation for patients in this hospital, and to necessitate the opening of the Fazakerley and Park Hill Hospitals for smallpox patients. * The cases taken to the .New Ferry (Port Sanitary) Hospital, on the Birkenhead side of the River Mersey, are not included in this list, as this hospital probably had no concern with spread of smallpox in Liverpool. 19585
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