"_Personnel of the Portland Hospital._ We take first the relation of
disease and inoculation among the _personnel_ of the hospital.
Twenty-four non-commissioned officers, orderlies, and servants of the
Portland Hospital, and 4 of the medical staff, were inoculated on the
voyage out. All these showed the local symptoms at the time; that is,
pain, stiffness, and local erythema; 17 also presented well-marked
constitutional symptoms--general feeling of illness, fever, and
headache. Of the orderlies, 9 had enteric fever subsequently. Two had
refused inoculation, and both of these had the disease very severely;
in fact one died. Of the inoculated cases, 5 had the disease lightly,
and 2 fairly severely. One of the sisters had the disease rather
severely, and she had not been inoculated.
"_Officers and men admitted to the Portland Hospital._ We had under
treatment at the Portland Hospital 231 cases of enteric fever, most of
which came under our care at Bloemfontein. We have not included in
these figures a number of patients who came in convalescent for a
short time only, and on their way to the base, and who would therefore
appear in the admission and discharge book of the hospital. If we did
so, of course our percentages would be lower. Of these 231 patients,
53 had been inoculated at home or on the voyage out, and of them 3
died, making a percentage of deaths among the inoculated of 5.6 per
cent.; 178 had not been inoculated, of whom 25 died; that is, a
mortality among the non-inoculated of 14 per cent. The general
mortality in enteric fever with us was 28 deaths out of 231 cases;
that is, 12.1 per cent., which seems to compare favourably with the
experience of the London hospitals.
"It is interesting to record our experience among the officers taken
separately. Thirty-three officers were admitted with enteric fever; 21
had been inoculated; that is, 63.6 per cent.; a much larger percentage
than among the men. Only one of these officers died, and he had not
been inoculated.
"These figures are small, but such as they are they are significant,
and they dispose us to look with favour upon inoculation. So also does
our clinical experience with our patients, for among the inoculated
the disease seemed to run a milder course."
4. _No. 9 General Hospital, Bloemfontein._ The _Medical Chronicle_ for
January 1901 contains an account, by Dr. J. W. Smith, of the work of
this hospital. He says: "The general impression amongst the medical
officers in our hospital was that a single inoculation probably did
not confer an immunity lasting very long--the lapse of time differing
in individuals--and also that there was a tendency in the cases of
enteric in inoculated patients to abort at the end of ten or fourteen
days. I should say, however, that a very considerable number of our
detachment who had been inoculated suffered from enteric, of whom 4 at
least died. Of the medical staff, the only member of the junior staff
who had not been inoculated died of enteric."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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