Enteric fever in India and in other tropical and sub-tropical regions : a study in epidemiology and military hygiene / by Ernest Roberts.

  • Roberts, Ernest.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Enteric fever in India and in other tropical and sub-tropical regions : a study in epidemiology and military hygiene / by Ernest Roberts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/600 (page 4)
    is on the trained and promising soldier of between 20 and 24 years of age. In the Report of the Commission appointed by the Secretary for War in 1900, to enquire into the causation of Dysentery and its relationship to Enteric Fever in South Africa, an attempt is made to estimate the monetary cost of the loss by the latter disease, on the basis of the “cheapest trained soldier available ” reckoning his value at £40. Such a one who dies and has to be replaced is calculated to cost £87 ; one who is attacked and rejoins his regiment after 4 months involves a loss of £57 ; one who is attacked and is invalided Home and has to be replaced by a fit substitute costs the State no less than £108. If we could accept these rates as approxi- mately applicable to India, the distance of which from England is even greater, we may calculate the annual average loss on account of Enteric Fever alone under peace conditions in recent years at something like £107,000, or Rs. 16,05,000. But it is to be noted that the above rates were calculated on the assumption that the “ cheapest trained infantry soldier costs £40 by the time he arrives at his destination in South Africa.” Now the British private has been estimated by the best authority to cost the Government of India as nearly as possible £100, i.e., for the initial and annually recurring expenditure involved in his maintenance, and as nearly half the number of deaths from Enteric Fever occur after the com- pletion of one year’s service in this country, we may fairly take the average monetary loss at £100 for each man. On this basis the total loss incurred annually in India may be estimated at something like £230,000. This calculation has reference to recorded cases only, and as we shall see, there is good reason to believe that an indefinite amount of the sickness due to this cause is included under other heads. The cost of special preventive measures has also to be added to the above sum, which would be further greatly enhanced if other filth ’5 diseases and their sequelae were taken into account; these have a similar origin and are propagated and spread in identical ways. It should also be noted that Farr calculated the value of an agricultural labourer, age 20, at £234, and one at the age of 25, at £246, by a careful estimate of the cost, at these ages, 44 of future maintenance and then of future earnings.” (“Vital Statistics,” page 313.) There is, thus, a large addition to be made, in the loss to the State, beyond that incurred by the Government of India. In addition to this, during the same period (1895-1902) there