Report on certain outbreaks of yellow fever in 1910 and 1911 / West Africa.

  • West Africa.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report on certain outbreaks of yellow fever in 1910 and 1911 / West Africa. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    once, as well as all the European bungalows outside the infected area ; in many instances this was done three or more times. In all 164 separate buildings were fumigated, and when Sir Rubert Boyce and his assistants arrived on the 15th of June the assistants were all set to work to fumigate these buildings again, so that every house was done under efficient medical supervision. The parcels and mail bags were sterilised by the railway authorities with dry steam under pressure. All the closed wagons on the railway were fumigated with sulphur before being loaded; the open trucks and passenger carriages were freely sprinkled with kerosene and brushed out by a gang of sweepers shortly before the departure of each train. The lighters and boats going off to the steamers were white-washed and sprinkled frequently with kerosene, but as the anchorage at Seccondee is two miles off the shore, there is little danger of any mosquitoes being conveyed from the shore to the ships. The preventive measures adopted may be briefly summarised as follows :— (1) The evacuation of every infected bungalow. These bunga- lows were sealed up, and each of them was fumigated with sulphur and afterwards Claytonised. (2) The evacuation of the infected area, by Europeans, between the hours of 5 p.m. and 7 a.m. This continued for a month, and no European was infected after the Evacuation Order was put in force on the evening of the 17th of May. (3) The fumigation with sulphur gas of every house in Business Area and of every European bungalow outside it. (4) The perforation of all gutters, a hole being punched in each linear yard of guttering. (5) Gangs were sent round collecting all tins, bottles, or other receptacles liable to breed mosquitoes. (6) The whole town was divided up into mosquito-brigade areas, each of which was in charge of a European, who went round with a small gang. At first the people were warned and the larval breeding vessel was merely oiled or upset, but afterwards full advantage was taken of the special anti-larval powers—the power to destroy— passed in Council on the 17th of May, and any vessel found to contain larvae, when no honest attempt had been made to screen it, was destroyed. Barrels were emptied, turned over, and their ends staved in with an axe. (7) At an early period of the outbreak—May the 21st—83 non- commissioned officers and men of the Pioneer Company of the Gold Coast Regiment were sent to Seccondee, and they proved to be invaluable. A number of them were engaged in fumigation work, and became very efficient; the others were divided up among the gangs of men engaged in clearing bush in and around the town, and thus it was possible to keep constant supervision over the large additional gangs of labourers employed, numbering from 90 to 150 men each day. (8) Not the least of the preventive measures taken was the draining of No. 1 Lagoon. The Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Slack, had reported that this lagoon bred innumerable Stegomyia. The lagoon was over four acres in extent, and hence it was important to get rid of this large breeding area. Mr. Beard, the Assistant Engineer of the Harbour Works, started this work on the 16th of May, and on the evening of the 17th nothing but a few jDuddles remained of this lagoon. A wooden sluice was subsequently put in, and the lagoon emptied at low tide each day, the few puddles that remained being treated with kerosene.