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Naturally, no house in the village can he obtained for the purpose, nor can
any suitable land be procured to erect an adequate building.
Apart from these difficulties there is also the very serious question of
expense, which cannot be lost sight of by a charitable institution.
The " Worcester" Training Ship, off Greenhithe, will also have to face the
same difficulty when the lease of their present Sanitorium expires in a few
months. The owner refuses to renew on any terms, and the Committee are
not prepared to accept the enormous responsibility of conducting such an
institution without the means of isolation of a few cases of infectious disease.
The School Board " Shaftesbury," off Grays, is also in the same predicament.
Both these vessels have decided, wisely, I think, to approach your Worshipful
Committee with the request that you will consider an application to provide
accommodation at the Gravesend Hospital on mutual terms.
If such be arranged, with proper safeguard, it would seem a reasonable way
of meeting what at present is a serious difficulty and an undoubted danger.
Every institution without means of early and prompt isolation of infectious
disease is in constant danger of a serious outbreak, especially where the
inmates are of tender years.
THE INFLUENZA.
During the last ten days of the year an epidemic febrile catarrh, probably
the so-called Russian Influenza, has attacked a large number of persons in
the Port of London. The symptoms of this disease, as observed, are, in the
majority of cases, high temperature, pains in limbs, and severe frontal headache,
lasting for three or four days, and followed by extreme prostration and
debility. In some persons catarrhal, and in others abdominal symptoms
mainly characterise the malady.
Happily all the cases are mild, and no deaths occur from the uncomplicated
disease.
It is, nevertheless, a real and definite illness, though one which a Sanitary
Authority can do nothing for in the direction of prevention.
The only necessary treatment is to keep the patients in a uniform temperature,
and carefully guard against the complications so likely to arise, such
as pneumonia and bronchitis, to which already many deaths have been
attributed.
D