Page:Report on the outbreak of plague at Fremantle.djvu/5

 REPORT ON THE OUTBREAK OF PLAGUE AT FREMANTLE.JANUARY—MARCH, 1903.

To the Honourable the Colonial Secretary from the Acting President of the Central Board of Health.

The outbreak consisted of eight cases, with four deaths. It began on January 24, when a youth working and living at an eating-house fell ill. On the 26th the case was reported to our local medical officer, Dr. Anderson, who pronounced it plague, and reported it to us. The cumbrousness of the procedure laid down for declaring a place infected was on this occasion very apparent. The day was a public holiday, and only one member of the Central Board was immediately available, and only one other late in the evening. As a consequence, the secretary and myself had to go to a distant suburb in the evening, and after some difficulty we obtained a quorum at the residence of one of these members. Thus the place remained open during the afternoon and evening of the 26th, and was not quarantined till the next morning. This seems to point to an omission in the Act. Nine "contacts" were removed into segregation, and next morning one was observed to be ill. He was a young man, living and working under the same conditions as the first patient. It was thought at first his condition might be the result of inoculation, but as he had a considerable temperature he was sent to the hospital, and eventually died of plague on the 29th. Later in the same day as the last, another "contact," a waitress at the shop, showed symptoms of illness, and was also sent to the hospital, where she passed through a mild attack of plague.

Thus the outbreak really began with three cases at this place. There was then the usual lull, followed by another case reported on February 13th, in the person of a tailoress, employed in a detached