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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    factory at Accra was sealed at once, and fumigation oE the building by means of a large Clayton machine performed the same day. A residence known as Governor's Lodge, on the outskirts of Accra, was placed at the disposal of the Medical Department and two Europeans isolated there as contacts. On February 6th Case 39 was taken ill of what was diagnosed as acute yellow atrophy of the liver. He died on February 24th. The following measures were at once put into force :— Inspection of Europeans in the district daily. Post-mortem examination of all natives dying under suspicious circumstances. Fumigation of all merchants' premises in the town. Free issue of sulphur and Alformant lamps. Organisation of a special gang to attend to mosquito destruction in the vicinity of infected premises. The contacts were allowed to return after ten days' isolation, and fumiga- tion was energetically continued in the native houses after the European residences had been completed. No further case occurred, and the Gold Coast appeared free of the infec- tion until May 17th (Case 40). On May 23rd (the same day on which Yellow Fever was also reported from the Gambia), a European attached to the Basel Mission factory was admitted to hospital and died the same day of Yellow Fever (Case 41). Another European, contact of the former case, was also diagnosed as suffering from Yellow Fever and admitted to hospital on the 23rd May, where he died on the 28th (Case 42). The Basel Mission premises in the High Street were at once fumigated, and the Europeans and natives living in the premises were removed and segregated. Of the natives so isolated three developed Yellow Fever on May 27th. (Cases 43, 44, 45.) Accra was declared to be an infected port on May 25tli, and the pre- ventive measures instituted by the Sanitary Department are described as follows by the Acting Senior Sanitary Officer, Dr. G. C. Walker:— At 4.30 p.m. on May 23rd the Sanitary Authorities were notified by the Medical Department that two Europeans certified to be suffering from Yellow Fever had been admitted to the Govern- ment Hospital. No further cases developed after the three which occurred amongst the natives isolated on May 26th, and Accra was declared free from infection on June 14th. Ten days later, however, on June 22nd, another case occurred in a, European at Accra (Case 46). On June 29th the death of a rion-official European (Case 47) was reported at Avreboo, 9 miles inland from Axim. The following preventive steps were at once instituted at Accra on June 24th:— The patient (Case 46) had been living in the Public Works barrack quarter. Seven other European officials were living there with twelve native servants. These seven Europeans and their twelve boys were at once removed to Governor's Lodge and isolated there. They were medically examined daily. By 5 p.m. the residents, European and native, had been removed out of the infected area, and the barrack quarters had been sealed up and fumigation of the living rooms was well under way. Fumigation of all the buildings in the infected area was thoroughly effected. A special Order in Council was obtained on the 24th June declaring the- area an infected area. By July every building in the area had been dealt with, the inhabitants allowed to return to their homes and the close cordon drawn round the infected area removed. The low and dense scrub was cut down and the roots dug up.