Annual report on the health and medical services of the state of Queensland.

  • Queensland. Department of Health.
Date:
[1951]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the health and medical services of the state of Queensland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    125/126 (page 109)
    The ninth victim was Mrs. E.C., aged 30 years, who lived in Georgetown in the same house as K.L., the fifth patient. She became ill on 19th January and was sent to Cairns the following day. She was 8 months pregnant and her baby was subsequently delivered by Caesarean section. The tenth and eleventh patients both lived in Kidston, but the family of the tenth patient visited Georgetown for the races. The tenth patient was K.R., aged 22 months. His sister developed a mild febrile illness on 9th January but the patient did not become ill until 19th January. He was admitted to Cairns Hospital the following day. The eleventh and last patient was L.K., aged 3^. There is no definite information of any contact with any other known case except perhaps with the tenth patient, K.R., in Kidston, He became ill on 19th January, and was evacuated to Cairns the following day. It is interesting to note that several of these patients, notably the second (G.H.), the fourth (R.R.), the seventh (N.C.), and the eighth (M.C.), gave a history of hard physical effort just prior to the onset of symptoms. This may have been a factor in determining the severity of the disease in these patients. These patients all died. Source of Infection.—It cannot be stated with exactness that the virus of poliomyelitis was brought to the Georgetown district by visitors who came to attend the race meetings. For instance, Case 1 left Georgetown two days before the first race meeting, but she could have met some visitors to the town before she left for her home on the station. However, several of the other patients were at the races—for instance, Case 2, Case 4, Case 7, and Case 8— while the family of Case 10 visited Georgetown for the races. Indeed, seven members of the C. family were present in Georgetown at the time of the race meetings. Case 5 possibly contracted his infection from Case 1, although that would give an incubation period of at least 17 days. It is more likely that he had direct contact with some other carrier of the virus. Case 9 lived in the same house as Case 5 and became ill eleven days after Case 5, so it appears that Case 9 could have been infected by Case 5. It is clear that the introduction of a virulent strain of poliomyelitis into a community whose susceptibility to the disease was high, resulted in an explosive outbreak of great severity. Figure 6 attempts to trace the relationship of cases to the race meetings or to known cases of the disease. Age Groups Invoiced.—It is worthy of note that of the 11 cases of poliomyelitis, 4 were in the 0-4 age group, 2 in the 5-14 age group, 4 in the 15-29 age group, whilst the eleventh victim was aged 30. The age groups most involved were, therefore, children less than five years of age, and young adults. Although it is not possible to push an argument too far with such a small series of cases, this tendency to attack the 15-29 year age group has also been noticed in sparsely-populated regions of Sweden (1930-1939) and on the island of St. Helena (1945-1946). Measures taken to bring Medical Aid.—There is no doctor at Georgetown and the Georgetown Hospital is staffed by nurses from the pool at Cairns, but the in-patient average does not exceed two patients, the principal duties of the nurses being to attend out-patients and to be on call for emergencies. Patients requiring hospital treatment are normally evacuated to Cairns Base Hospital by aerial ambulance. The first three patients were quickly trans¬ ported to Cairns. The fourth patient was trans¬ ported from his home at Almaden to Mareeba Hospital. When the fourth case occurred, a medical officer and an additional nurse were brought by air to Georgetown. It was not pos¬ sible to transport a box-type respirator to Georgetown as these must be carried in large planes for which no landing strips existed. Furthermore, Georgetown had no electric power. The doctor returned to Cairns a few days later, and on 18th January a medical officer from Mareeba Hospital visited Georgetown. This doctor made headlines by swimming flooded streams and riding on horseback over difficult country to attend patients at Forsayth. He remained in the Georgetown district until relieved by Dr. C. R. Lulham on 23rd January. Dr. Lulham’s observations form the basis of this report. Comments on the Outbreak.—Features of this outbreak were the probable Ioav level of immun¬ ity in a sparsely-settled community, the severity of symptoms when they occurred, the high mortality (five cases out of eleven), and an apparent relationship between the fatal cases and severe physical effort which they had under¬ gone about the time of onset of their illness. This outbreak shows that poliomyelitis can spread with the rapidity of an infectious disease when conditions are favourable for its propa¬ gation. The grim situation in the Georgetown district called forth all those qualities which make us proud of being British. Those individuals seek¬ ing to succour the afflicted and transport them