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SMALLPOX.
(1) On Thursday, 3rd March, 1938, the Boarding Medical Officer at Plymouth
telephoned the Port of London Boarding Station at Gravesend to say that he had that
morning seen a case of alleged Measles on board a ship returning from the Par East,
that he had allowed the case to proceed to London but that he was not happy about it,
he would like confirmation of the provisional diagnosis, and he suspected the
possibility of Smallpox.
The development of the case since the time of examination at Plymouth and
arrival at Gravesend was such that on inspection at the latter point it was obvious that
the case was one of Smallpox.
He was a young Australian aged 20 years coming to join the Royal Air Force.
He had not been vaccinated in infancy, and an attempt to vaccinate him before leaving
Australia had been unsuccessful. He went ashore at Bombay on 12th February and
visited the native city. On 24th February he was taken ill, and on 27th February the
eruption appeared.
The patient was landed to Denton Hospital with his bedding and effects. His
cabin companion and two native stewards who had attended him were taken to
Denton for bathing and disinfection of their effects. All the passengers and crew were
inspected and all those who did not appear to be protected were urged to be vaccinated,
though it was too late to give assurance of protection. The names and addresses of
the passengers and white crew were carefully checked, and arrangements Avere made to
have the native crew inspected daily on the ship.
The whole of the tourist section of the ship was disinfected.
As the addresses of the passengers who landed at Marseilles and Plymouth were
not known beyond the somewhat vague addresses given in the ship's passenger manifest,
the Ministry of Health decided to appeal by radio broadcast and through the Press
for such passengers to report to their local Medical Officers of Health at once.
All the addresses of the passengers and white crew landing in London were posted
to the Medical Officers of Health of the districts of destination before 6.0 p.m. on the
day of arrival of the ship.
The patient was very ill indeed, and it seemed almost impossible that he could
live through the disease although, having a magnificent physique, he was making a
great fight for it. He died suddenly at 5.0 p.m., on Monday, 7th March.
The greatest care was taken in the disposal of the body to prevent the spread of
infection by the undertaker and the Port Health Staff who assisted him.