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38
On the 30th I was asked to visit a doubtful case in Billet Lane, and
found two others suffering from Small Pox, so that on July 1st five
sufferers were removed from the house.
On the 2nd July a case occurred in High Street, and two cases of
Chicken Pox presenting unusual difficulties in diagnosis were notified as
Small Pox. These latter were not removed to Hospital, but every
precaution was taken against the possibility of their causing a spread of
the disease, assuming that they might be Small Pox.
On the 4th a further case was notified from Cuthbert Road, the cause
unknown.
The subsequent cases could be traced from the foregoing, and on
July 21st the last notification was received.
The cases occurring in Forest Road were the undoubted cause of all
the subsequent ones, although in every instance direct communication
could not be traced.
Many of the cases were preventable if we could have insisted upon
immediate vaccination of contacts, and the experience gained was that
of all epidemics of the kind, in favour of vaccination in infancy and
revaccination in adults exposed to the disease. Two of the men
engaged on the Electric Tram lines contracted Small Pox, and it was
then rumoured that the influx of navvies into the district was the cause
of the epidemic, but I could not trace any such connection.
The 49 cases reported resulted in one death, that of a woman, aged
35 years.
The death of the child, certified as due to Chicken Pox was no
doubt Small Pox, and was the cause of the undertaker's illness.
In all the cases of Small Pox the following precautions were taken:—
1. The patient when notified was immediately visited and removed
to hospital.
2. The premises and clothing disinfected.
3. Notification to the Education Authority advising exclusion, for
21 days, of contacts; excepting vaccinated children under 10 years and
those over that age who were re-vaccinated.
4. Pawnshops were notified.