THE PROTECTION OF INDIA FROM YELLOW FEVER.
Yellow fever has not yet appeared in India, but the abundant presence of
the mosquito (stegomyia fasciata) which transmits it, the susceptibility of the
population, and the general conditions in the chief seaports are very favourable
to its existence and spread, and it is believed that the introduction of the virus
would be followed by devastating epidemics which would be exceedingly difficult
to control. In 1903 Sir Patrick Manson drew prominent attention to the risk
that the commercial developments which will follow the opening of the Panama
Canal may lead to the introduction of the disease into Asia, and in June 1911
the danger to India was discussed in an important paper by Major F. F. Gordon
Tucker, I.M.S., Professor of Pathology in the Grant Medical College, Bombay.
In order that first-hand information, which would be useful in devising timely
measures, might be available, I was deputed by the Government of India in
October 1911 to ascertain the conditions in a portion of the endemic area in
Central America, and in the principal seaports between that country and India.
The route by which I travelled and the names of the places visited are shown on
the accompanying map, and I have detailed in the last section of this report, the
information I was able to collect. For the remainder of my report I propose to
summarize briefly the opinions at which I have arrived regarding the degree of
danger of the introduction of yellow fever into India, and regarding the measures
which might be taken at present.
I.
The first ideas that come to one's mind on examining a map of the World,
or of the Pacific Ocean, prepared on Mercator's projection, are that the Panama
Canal will provide a direct route to Asia and India from Europe, the United
States and, the endemic area of yellow fever, and that after the canal is open for
traffic there will be a danger of yellow fever being conveyed to India by direct
shipping to that country from, or by way of, ports in the endemic area on the
Atlantic side of the canal. But charts on Mercator's projection give a distorted
view of the features of the earth and a wrong impression of the shortest distances
between most ports, so that in order to ascertain whether our first ideas are
tenable and to enable the problem with which India is concerned to be accurately
stated, it will be convenient to begin the attempt to estimate the degree of risk
of the introduction of yellow fever into that country with a tabular record of the
shortest distances between certain ports. This information is contained in the
following statement, which has been spaced with a view to show that problems
of " the East " are sometimes only very indirectly problems of India.
TABLE OF DISTANCES IN NAUTICAL MILES.
FROM
London vid Suez ...
London viá Panama
New York viá Suez
New York viá Panamn
New Orleans viá Suez
New Orleans viá Panama
Havana viá Suez ...
Havana viá Panama
474DE
T 0
Calcutta
7,902
17,186
9.795
14,416
11,138
13,824
10,636
12,994
6,702
17)133
8,595
14,363
9.938
13,771
9j436
12,941
Bombay.
6,260
18,206
8,153
15,436
9,502
14,844
9,000
14,014
Singapore.
8,248
15,556
10,141
12,786
11,484
12,194
IOj9S2
11,364
Hong Kong.
9,6SS
14,116
11,580
11,346
12,924
10,754
12,428
9,924
10,437
13,464
12,324
10,694
13,667
10,1022
13,165
9,272
Yokohama.
11,150
12,894
13,042
9,724
14,386
9,132 '
13,890
8,302
Sydney.
11,538
12,484
14,808
9,714
...
...
...
...