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on arrival found that no vaccination of the persons occupying the hostel,
neither staff nor residents (lodgers) had taken place. I, therefore, suggested
to the Public Vaccinator of Stepney who had attended to vaccinate the
staff, that all the residents in the hostel should immediately be offered
vaccination.
This was found to be impossible at the moment since daily registration
for accommodation was the rule. In other words intending residents (lodgers)
had to register between 12 noon and 4.0 p.m., daily and had to vacate their
cubicles by 10.0 a.m., the following day, no matter how many nights they slept
in the hostel.
I thereupon arranged with the Manager for all the residents to be notified
on registering that vaccination would be commenced at 11.0 p.m., since nobody
could either enter or leave the hostel after that hour. Vaccination was
subsequently carried and completed by 3.0 a.m.
A list was obtained from the Manager of all residents who had used the
hostel and left since the 4th March. Armed with this list, numbering 159 persons,,
the five Mercantile Pool Officers were contacted and given a copy of the
list and requested to obtain either the home addresses or the names of the
ships on which persons appearing in the list, had sailed.
The Pools were instructed that should any of the contacts be still awaiting
ships they should not be 'signed on' and any that reported for duty should
be referred back to the hostel.
As a result of the information subsequently received from the Pools, wireless
messages were sent to ships at sea on which contacts had sailed informing
the Masters of the circumstances and communications were sent to the Medical
Officers of Health of the districts in which contacts were spending their
leave.
No new residents were accepted at the hostel and no person resident on or
before the 10th March was allowed to leave until the 27th March. Those contacts
who were employed ashore (working on vessels in the docks etc.,) were allowed
to proceed to their daily work, but only after inspection.
Vaccinations were carried out daily as contacts continued to dribble back
to the hostel via the Pools or as a result of the wireless broadcast.
The tracing of contacts was made more difficult by the fact that the only
particular entered on the hostel register at the time of registration was the
person's name. This resulted in a number of persons of similar surnames being
sent back to the hostel by the Pools, who had never been in the hostel.
It was suggested to the Manager that in future it would be desirable if the
number of the intended resident's "Discharge Book" could be taken and entered
into the register against his name, as a means of identification.
Despite these drawbacks the majority of the residents in the list were
traced and vaccinated. A good example of this occurred in the case of a steward
who sailed to New York and back before being traced and vaccinated.
Two cases of sickness amongst the resident staff occurred after the 10th
March. Both were segregated and examined daily by a doctor, the final diagnosis
being influenza.
Certain difficulties were experienced in preventing some of the residents
from leaving before the 27th March, for instance, the shipwrecked crew of a
Greek steamer and a party of Maltese repatriates who were due for repatriation.
These difficulties were, however, overcome without serious trouble.,
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