Infectious Diseases

With the Corona Virus/Covid 19 impacting on our lives, I thought we could look at other diseases from the past and their impact on the community. Infectious diseases had to be notified to the Board of Health and the Shire Council Medical Officers included a list of the diseases in their Annual Report. In 1912, Dr Harkness submitted his annual report to the Shire of Cranbourne for 1911 and it included - six cases of diphtheria in Cranbourne, one at Clyde, two at Lang Lang, all of which recovered. There was one case of typhoid fever at Kooweerup, which unfortunately ended fatally. One case of typhoid fever at Heath Hill, recovering in this instance. Measles was epidemic at Tooradin, Yannathan and Lang Lang (1).  Thirty seven years later in the 1948 annual report, the Shire of Berwick medical officer, Dr Farrell, reported there had been seven cases of scarlet fever, one each of polio, malaria, puerperal fever and tuberculosis and none of diphtheria (2).

If a person was sent to hospital with an infectious disease then it was reported to the local council and this became part of the medical officers report at Council meetings, thus we learn that in July 1910 Mr. T. Roper from Cora Lynn had typhoid (3) and that in March 1917 Harry Evans from Cora Lynn had pulmonary tuberculosis (4).  No privacy in those days.

Koo Wee Rup had seen a diphtheria epidemic in June 1898, in fact a newspaper had the headline A grave state of affairs (5). Dr Bennie from Berwick investigated this and the cause of the outbreak was blamed on night soil (sewerage) contaminating the drains which were used for drinking water (6). He also said the settlers were too poor to obtain proper food and clothing, and have had a very bad season, so that with poor food, poor clothing and tainted water, it is astonishing that the outbreak has not been more extensive (7).

Before antibiotics, other drugs and vaccinations communities tried all sorts of methods to slow the spread of diseases including the hot issue of the moment - Should we close down the schools?  The report of Dr Harkness to the Shire of Cranbourne in 1912 said that the schools at Tooradin, Yannathan and Lang Lang were closed for the measles outbreak and the school at Clyde for the diphtheria outbreak. There was also a diphtheria outbreak at Koo Wee Rup North State School in 1925 and the school building was condemned and classes were held in the hall (8). In July 1919, Bunyip and Longwarry State schools were closed due to Influenza (9). The Spanish influenza pandemic infected forty per cent of Australia’s population, and caused the death of 15,000 Australians. The Australian population at the time was just over five million.

Children were also kept home from school due to chicken pox outbreaks. The Dandenong Journal of October 2, 1930 reported that An epidemic of chicken pox is raging in the town, and over 20 children are away from the school - enjoying themselves, playing in the street (10). This was in Cranbourne, clearly the concept of self-isolation wasn’t being heeded.

In August 1937, Bunyip school was closed due to polio or infantile paralysis as it was known (11). 1937-1938 was an especially bad time for polio in Australia and the majority of the cases were children. Once again, the Dandenong Journal reported on parents whose children were home from school, but not isolated. A feature of the later stages of the epidemic of infantile paralysis has been the co-operation given by parents to the expert Consultive (sic) Council in its effort to restrict opportunities for the spread of the disease. When the schools were first closed, complaints were made that parents were permitting their children to go into crowds, thus negativing the purpose of closing the schools. Since then, however, most parents have been careful to keep their children at home - in the danger area at any rate. There have been some individual cases of parents becoming panicky, but in the great majority of instances this is not so. Even in Parliament care has been taken not to encourage panic (12).

In the summer of 1949/1950 my Dad, Frank Rouse, and other members of the Cora Lynn Scout Group had a camp on Fraser Island in Queensland. One of the boys at the camp developed polio and the whole camp had to be quarantined for a week; because Dad was only young, he thought it was great - an extra week’s holiday, however polio was a serious disease with lifetime consequences.

One of the causes of infectious diseases was insanitary drains. In March 1914 there was a series of reports in the papers regarding the drains at Bunyip. Apparently, the drains were not cleaned during the summer months and thus they became a catchment for refuse water and odorous filth  (13) and this caused disease. The Berwick Shire disputed the state of the drains and said there had been no infectious disease in the town and that statements that disease had entered every house in the town were untrue. The newspaper reports of the state of the health of the town of Bunyip led to a drop in tourism numbers - The Easter holidays passed off very quietly in Bunyip, not half the number of visitors of previous years coming to the town or district. The reason for this is hard to understand, unless it be that many people stayed away because of the absurdly false reports spread by one or two "ratty" individuals that infectious diseases were rampant in Bunyip (14).

Typhoid was also prevalent and after the December 1934 flood there were fears of a typhoid outbreak at Koo Wee Rup, due to the pollution of the water by dead animals. It was recommended to boil all water before use (15).

There were some interesting cures written up in the newspapers in the 1880s and 1890s including drinking absinthe to cure cholera (16). Absinthe had a very high alcohol content, so maybe if you drank enough the pain of the symptoms such as headaches, nausea, abdominal cramps just went away. Another interesting cure was tobacco smoke which could be used as a disinfectant to kill the cholera germ (17).  Of course, we do not recommend taking up the consumption of absinthe or tobacco to protect yourself from cholera or any other infectious disease.

Trove list - I have created a list of newspapers articles on Trove, connected to and used in this article, access it here.

Sources:
(1) South Bourke and Mornington Journal March 7, 1912, see here.
(2) Dandenong Journal  March 30, 1949, see here.
(3) South Bourke and Mornington Journal July 27, 1910, see here.
(4) South Bourke and Mornington Journal, March 15, 1917, see here.
(5) South Bourke and Mornington Journal, June 8, 1898, see here.
(6) The Argus June 14, 1898, see here.
(7) South Bourke and Mornington Journal, June 8, 1898, see here.
(8) The Argus August 10, 1925, see here.
(9) Weekly Times July 26, 1919, see here.
(10) Dandenong Journal  October 2, 1930, see here.
(11) Dandenong Journal August 26, 1937, see here.
(12) Dandenong Journal  August 19, 1937, see here.
(13) The Age April 9, 1914, see here.
(14) Bunyip Free Press  April 16, 1914 see here.
(15) The Herald  December 11, 1934, see here.
(16) South Bourke and Mornington Journal  November 4, 1885, see here.
(17) South Bourke and Mornington Journal  May 27, 1891, see here.