KARACHI DISTRICT.]
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"Meanwhile, sporadic cases were occurring in other parts of the town, the victims being
widely dissociated. The last of these, however, occurred early in November, and once for a
period of ten days and on another occasion for eight days in succession no cases were
reported. The infection among the Rambagh Memon community was stopped by evacuation
and segregation in the special Memon Camp early in November.
" Infection next appeared among other Memons in the Garden Quarter, about half a mile
away, where it adjoins the town proper, about which the following extract from the weekly
Plague report is quoted:—
'During the past fortnight or three weeks, five deaths occurred in a large compound in
the Garden Quarter. The bodies were examined in every case, but except that the deaths
were considered suspicious by reason of their occurring partly among the members of the
same family in adjoining rooms and so soon after one another, 'there was no reason to
believe them to be due to plague. * * * A true case has now occurred among them
7 days after the last death.'
"This case was followed by 5 others from the same source of infection, most of them
occurring in a camp to which over 600 persons were removed from their houses after the
first case mentioned above. On December 1st, a Bhil girl in a neighbouring compound died
of plague, and on December 21st and 22nd two Memon children of another compound. The
weekly report is again quoted regarding these two cases, as the difficulty in diagnosing deaths
from plague was again exemplified :—
'On the 12th a Memon woman died after giving birth to a child on the 11th, who
also died. It was certified after examination that there were no symptoms of plague.
On the 17th, a Memon 50 years old died and was certified not to have died of plague
by the doctor who attended him. He had been living in the house next to that in which
the woman had died on the 12th. The two cases this week are the son, aged 12, and
the grandson, aged 2½, of the man who died on the 17th.'
" In the following week, one more case occurred traceable to this source, and later on
another. It broke out next in a compound in the Jail Quarter close to those from which the
residents had been removed to camp. Four cases occurred on the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 12th
January, a fifth on the 18th, and with them the plague ceased in this neighbourhood for a
time.
" In the weekly reports, attention has been drawn to the large proportion of children who
suffered during the epidemic among the Memons. Out of the 8 cases in the Rambagh Quarter,
7 were children under 14 years, and 6 of the 14 cases from the Garden and Jail Quarters
which occurred in November, December, and January.
" This completes the narrative of the intermediate months between the second and third
epidemics. The last cases of the second epidemic were succeeded by a series of small outbreaks
quickly subdued, and sporadic cases among all classes. When the rest of the town was free,
there followed the outbreak among the Memons, the insidious spread of which to the Garden
and Jail Quarters was not checked until the middle of January."
The third outbreak in Karachi was probably a recrudescence. "No possible cause
except recrudescence," writes Mr. Sladeu, "could be assigned for the first of these cases.
The second might, perhaps, have been derived from the first, but no connection was trace-
able. From the 2Sth of January, when the first case occurred in the Napier Quarter, it was
evident that a recurrence of plague in an epidemic form was probable."
Throughout February the cases gradually became more numerous; while throughout
March the figures rose rapidly. Mr. Sladen thus briefly reviews the progress of the
epidemic :—
'' From the 26th February, there was a rapid increase in the number of cases, and the
totals of the succeeding weeks rose steadily from 59 in the week ending March 3rd to 428
in the week ending April 14th. Plague mortality began to decline at once after the maxi-
mum had been reached, but the figures remained high till about May 10th, when the im-
provement became very rapid. The total number of cases in the weeks ending May 26th
and June 2nd were only 29 and 34, respectively, and in the week ending June 23rd there
were none. The succeeding weeks have shewn one or two cases only. As an epidemic,
plague was practically over by the end of May."
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