Progress report of the Medical Officer of Health to 30th September, 1925 / Urban Sanitary District of the City of Port-of-Spain.

  • Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago). Public Health Department.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Progress report of the Medical Officer of Health to 30th September, 1925 / Urban Sanitary District of the City of Port-of-Spain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHLORINATION. 4. On the assumption that the abnormal rise in the prevalence of enteric fever which took place in Port-of-Spain in February, 1924, was mainly due to the effect of specific—-and probably heavy—pollution of the Maraval river, near which recent cases of this disease were found to have occurred, the Local Authority chlorinated the water supply from that source as a tentative measure of protection against further possible infection. Using bleaching powder, chlorination was begun at the end of February and, except for a few days when the supply of bleach ran short, the process was continued until the end of August last when the Paterson Chloronome apparatus imported from London was put into service and chlorine gas used in place of bleach. 5. Later, following bacteriological indications, the St. Ann’s and Cocorite supplies were in turn chlorinated with bleaching powder, until recently when the installation of a Chloronome in each of these stations permitted the use of chlorine gas. Facilities for chlorinating the whole of the water supply from all the various sources were completed by putting up a Chloronome at the Diego Martin pumping station for use when required. TASTE TROUBLES. 6. The peculiar taste sometimes imparted to the water by the chemical treatment to which it was subjected provoked a good deal of unfavourable comment during the experimental stages of the process. This public inconvenience was the cause of much anxious solicitude on the part of the Local Authority and their officers, and every effort, consistent with safety, was made to reduce the quantity of material used in order to minimise the production of “ taste ” in the water. 7. This year complaints have happily been few, and since the Chloronome apparatus has been in use at Maraval, in combination with a permanganate “ detaster,” the palatability of the water has been so completely restored that many consumers who formerly complained now inquire whether chlorination has been stopped altogether. ENTERIC FEVER. 8. It is satisfactory to report that a remarkable decline in the prevalence of enteric fever in Port-of-Spain has taken place since the plan of chlorinating the water supply has been adopted. In 1924 commencing with 29 cases, or a little below the average number for the month of January in the preceding six years, viz.:—1918-1923, the disease sharply rose to a peak with 99 cases in February, at the end of which month, as already stated, chlorination was begun. From the following month onwards the cases steadily declined until in June the number fell much below all the monthly averages for the previous six years and, still dropping from month to month, remained at a low level to the end of 1924. 9. This year the notifications each month from January to September have also kept below the mean monthly incidence of the disease for the six years immediately preceding the institution of chlorination. MODES OF SPREAD. 10. It needs to be remembered that enteric fever is not a new disease in Port-of-Spain. It has been endemic for scores of years, and there are official records of epidemic outbreaks dating over fifty years ago. The disease, as is generally known, maybe spread in a variety of ways—by direct contact with the sick; by food, milk, water and other beverages contaminated with bowel evacuations or the urine—which is equally dangerous—-of persons suffering or convalescent from the disease ; directly or indirectly by human carriers, namely, former sufferers who, though cured, still continue to pass the germs of the disease in their excreta, and also by flies, especially in places where these insect carriers have access to specifically infected cesspits, soiled bed clothes and other articles.