Special report on the outbreak of typhoid fever in Southend during June and July, 1902 / by J.T.C. Nash.

  • Nash, James Thomas Charles, 1865-
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Special report on the outbreak of typhoid fever in Southend during June and July, 1902 / by J.T.C. Nash. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    21/22 (page 21)
    The above is only a further consideration which may be more convincing from a popular point of view than the evidence previously given. The accumulated evidence in this connection is something much more striking than that shewn diagramatically in figures I and III which represent the very best that can be shewn for those who do not feel inclined to accept the shell-fish origin of Typhoid Fever. Diagrams II and IV more clearly indicate the real state of affairs ; indeed, I doubt if even 5 per cent of the residential popu- lation eat shell-fish.* Another fact worth mentioning as really bearing on the relation- ship between shell-fish and Typhoid Fever in Southend is this, “ Typhoid Fever is about three times more prevalent in the districts bordering on the Thames than in the rest of the County of Essex, and in this area of excessive prevalence, the greatest excess is con- stantly in the districts at the mouth of the river.’f This fact has been pointed out by the County Medical Officer on more than one occasion. I suggest that the reason lies in the fact that shell-fish are more largely consumed in this “ area of excessive prevalence.” I believe that if the eating of shell-fish were abandoned in Southend, the incidence of Typhoid Fever would lessen by fully one half. * These ratios are given for the bare period of 4 months. The standard terms of the ratios in one year per 1,000 persons living in each section of the population, if the conditions during the period in question were continued during an entire year, would reveal even more startling figures. For the entire population the attack rate would be 5'0 per 1,000. For the cockle-eating population „ „ 50 „ „ For shell-fish merchants and employes ,. „ 160 „ ,, For the remainder of the population even including those secondary to shell-fish cases „ ,, 2 6 „ „ f Summary of the Reports of the District Medical Officers in the administrative County of Essex, for 1901, prepared by Dr. Thresh, for the Essex County Council. Page 52.