294
Rats and Plague.-In February the Captain Superintendent of Police, the Medical Officer of Health and the Government Analyst were appointed a Commission for the purpose of exterminating rats. A grant of $200 was made for traps, poison, and other requisites. Experiments were made to see if it were possible to attract rats into cellars by means of food in order that poison might afterwards be used. It was found that the animals had so much garbage in the streets and lanes, that the choice food placed in cellars had no attraction. Traps were set in every house in West Point-a district in which plague is invariably bad whenever the Colony is infected. After two months no more rats could be caught in West Point, and householders said that no more were to be seen. Simultaneously with the operations in this district, traps were set in Kowloon, and in the Central District. Altogether about 1,000 rats were caught. A large number, in addition, were caught by the Chinese, many of whom bought traps and put themselves to considerable trouble to exterminate the animals.
The Commission was dissolved in May, as the Medical Officer of Health stated that it appeared more probable that rats caught plague from man rather than that men were infected through rats. Although the West Point District had probably never before been so free from rats as it was just before plague appeared, the epidemic there was one of the worst experienced.
On account of the increase in the number of cases notified in the month of March, steps were taken by the Sanitary Board at its meeting on the 3rd March for the enforcement of the provisions of the cleansing and line-washing bye-laws in the central parts of the City.
Early in April, on account of the prevalence of the disease in No. 9 Health District, the Board declared it infected.
Prompt measures were immediately taken to deal with the disease.
The disease became much more prevalent in May, at the end of the month the Branch Plague Hospital was reopened for the reception of plague patients.
Early in June a report was made to the Government of the reappearance of plague at Canton. On the 17th June Health Districts Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 were declared to be infected. Information of the presence of plague at Amoy was obtained in the middle of June.
The Sanitary Board on 24th June advised that Amoy be declared infected with plague. Health Districts Nos. 11 and 12 (Kowloon Peninsula) were declared infected with the disease on 30th June.
Amoy was declared free from plague on 17th of August.
It was not until the end of September that plague ceased to be prevalent. On the 12th October the Sanitary Board reported that clean Bills of lealth might then be issued as no cases had been notified for the previous ten days.
In all 1,486 cases of plague were notified during the year with 1,434 deaths.
The following table gives the number of cases reported in each month for the years 1898 and
1899:-
1898.
1899.
January,
9
1
February,.
67
Marcb,
137
25
April,..
.468
101
May,
.534
421
June,
92
514
July,
7
263
August,
2
86
September,
1
57
October.
2
4
November,
Ü
1
December,
11
1,486
1,320
From July, 1898, to the end of February, 1899, only sixteen cases occurred, the disease during this time was quiescent, the marked recurrence of cases, however, in houses previously infected shows that the bacilli are but dorinant and in the ill-ventilated, badly lighted and overcrowded Chinese dwellings which exist in this Colony only require certain atmospheric conditions to favour their growth and spread.
During 1899 out of a total of 7,159 houses in the City of Victoria there were 709 houses in which cases of plague occurred, in 80 of these 709 houses cases of plague had occurred in 1898, so that 11 per cent. of the cases were in houses previously infected in the 1898 outbreak.
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