The history of small-pox in Australia, 1788-1908 / compiled from various sources by J.H.L Clumpston.

Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The history of small-pox in Australia, 1788-1908 / compiled from various sources by J.H.L Clumpston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Mortality. The total number of deaths throughout the epdiemic was 40, or 25'9 per cent., of the patients attacked. Vaccination. The statistics regarding vaccination were commenced on tlie 2nd of September, 1881. Of the 40 patients wlio died. 29, or almost tlirce-([uarters, liad iiever been vaccinated, ten had been vaccinated in early life (of these there is only one under 17 years of age, and all had been vaccinated in infancy), and of one there is no record. Thus of the total number of deaths in which vaccination or non-vaccination has been recorded, 25 per cent, occurred amongst vaccinated patients, and 72-5 per cent, amongst unvaccinated persons. Of the patients who were attacked by the disease, and about whose condition of vaccination details are recorded, 103 in number, 47, or 45 • 6 per cent., had been vaccinated at various ages. The details of these cases are set out in Table B. The following extract from the official report contains interesting data concerning individual cases :—■ Of the total 154 cases of variola, it will be observed that in 42 instances the disease was contracted from an inmate of the same house, and of these a large propor- tion was contributed by instances in which the father of a family, being a disbehever in vaccination, had not allowed his children to be vaccinated, and the disease struck down, with more or less fatal effect, many members of the household. Thus in one family at Pyrmont, consisting of ten members, six cases occurred, two of which terminated fatally. Of the members who escaped, two were vaccinated some time previously, and the other two the day after the house was quarantinerl. The six members of the family who had been struck down by the disease had never been vaccinated. In another family, consisting of eight persons, residing at Woolloomooloo Bay, six unvaccinated members had small-pox and twO vaccinated members escaped. In another family in Sussex-street, consisting of six members (all unvaccinated), five cases occurred. Another example of the protective power of vaccination occurred amongst the members of a family in Arthur-place, of whom three were unvaccinated and one was vaccinated. The three former contracted the disease, and the latter escaped. In another family, consisting of five members only, two of whom were -vaccinated, the three unvaccinated members of the family alone suffered from the disease. Although the official report, which was written in 1883, describes only cases occurring in Sydney, yet contemporary medical journals have recorded other cases. One case was recorded from Bega (a township 255 miles south from Sydney) in January, 1882. It is supposed that a relative of this patient only recently returned from Sydney, where she resided next to an infected house, carried the infection to the district. In February of the same year, a case was reported from Lismore {Australasian Medical Gazette, January-February, 1882, pp. 57 and 70). Bearing in mind the oft-repeated story of the confusion between chicken- pox in times of epidemic and small-pox, it is interesting to note that the Australasian Medical Gazette reported in June, 1882, that 'some cases of varicella and scarlet fever had been reported at Albury. It is very probable that the number of cases stated to have existed (154) does not represent by any means the total number of cases that occurred. The report states :— Up to the 20th December, 1881, it was optional with medical men and householders whether they should or should not report cases of true or suspected variola, and it is