The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-07-19
CENTERED IN ONE PERSON
SOURCE OF INFECTION IN A
TYPHOID EPIDEMIC.
Numerous People Took the Disease
From This Man, and Had He Left
There Would Have Been No More.

There Would Have Seen NO More.
In a special report on a case of ty-
plus fever by DR.. Waldo, medical Off
Ger of health to the parish of St.
George the Martyr, London, infec-
ton is very carefully traced back from
case to case; so far back, indeed that
DR.. Waldo is able to show that the
whole series sprang from an individu-
al who, alone out of her family, escap-
ed isolation and disinfection in a pre-
ViOuS outbreak.
on February 20, 1899 the case in
question was notified from house in
Southwark Bridge-road and on in
quiry it was found that several of her
relatives had been attacked with mys-
ferrous illnesses, and on investigation
the following sequence of cases was
made out
In October, 1898. a case of typhus
fever, the origin of which could not be
asCertained, occurred i'm the parish.
The case was removed to hospital the
house was closed for disinfection, and
DR.. Waldo induced all the inmates
with the exception of the father to en-
ter the Reception House which had
been opened for the purpose of shelter
ing people during the process of dis
infection. The father however, went
to Bermondsey and slept two nights
at house in Minto-street, which we
will call A.
In this house, A, there were resident
four families, and on December IS,
Mrs. F., a resident in this house, was
admitted to Guys Hospital, where
she was treated for supposed enteric
fever, and was discharged to a con-
ValeSCent home on January %. On De-
cember "a the son and daughter-in-law
of the man who had taken the infection
Il gly 70 i,,t lee
A, the house to which the infection
had been brought by the father, and
removed to house in Tabard street
Newington, which we will call b.
Here the son was taken i'll on January
13, 1899, and was removed in a delirious
condition to the Newington Work
house. where he died on January 49,
The wife of the last patient was taken
i'll on about the same date, and died at
b on January IA.
Returning now to A, we find that
Mrs. F., who was first attacked there
on the night before she went into
Guys, called at another house in Min
to-street, G, and arranged for one of
her boys being taken there as a lodger
At the same time she interviewed a
woman from another house, d, who un-
dertook to take charge of second son.
Towards the end of January this lat
ter son was taken i'll and removed to
st. OlaVe's Union Infirmary, where he
still remained at the time the report
was presented.
Now, going back to the house C, in
Minto-street, we find it inhabited by
the w family-father, mother, three
sons, and two daughters, and the re-
Gently admitted son of Mrs. F. Seven
of these eight persons were admitted
to hospital at various dates up to
March I, and all these cases have been
WOO ,fsy.,I gsNl
sequently as typhus fever. Two of
these patients had died at the time of
the report. Now we come to the case
reported to DR.. Waldo on February
20, 1893, from the Southwark Bridge
road. she, it turned out. had removed
to that address only two days previ-
ously, having come from Weston
street, BermOndsey, and inquiry it also
came out that she had sat up one night
with her brother, Richard W., the head
of the aforementioned w. family,
while patient at Kings College, Hos
pital, where he died on January 30.
We understand that, since this report
was sent in, another member of the
w. family has been removed from the
house in Weston street, the case being
notified as suffering from typhus fever.
The above history is a good example
of painstaking work in tracing out in
lection, and it serves well to show how
virulent a disease typhus becomes
when it finds a fitting soil. DR..
Waldo very reasonably concludes that
the infection was carried out of the
parish by the father of the first pa
tient, and that had he entered the Re-
ception House along with the rest of
the family the centre of infection from
which all this mischief arose would
have been entirely stamped out.-The
Hospital"