FEVER ON THE SUEZ CANAL
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Under the title of “The Prevention of Fever on the Suez Canal.” Mr. E.H. Ross has published at Cairo an important account of the details of the campaign against mosquitoes which was conducted under his direction at Port Said, and subsequently at Ismailia, and which has afforded invaluable experience of the methods most calculated to be successful in other localities. Commencing with the European quarter at Port Said, the whole of the district to be treated was divided into seven portions, each of which was visited once a week by the mosquito brigade, which entered every home and renewed the supply of oil by which the larvae lurking in cesspools and other receptacles were destroyed. The success attained was so marked as to induce the inhabitants of the native quarters to ask for the extension of the resulting benefits to themselves, and to waive the objection to the admission of officials into their houses which they would in the first instance have entertained; so that ultimately the whole of Port Said could be effectively dealt with.

The inhabitants had been accustomed to suffer frequently from “fever” of a somewhat obscure type, which was sometimes called “dengue”, and sometimes “influenza” and was usually treated successfully by quinine, but which had not been recognized as mosquito-borne until the results of the campaign against these pests revealed the truth. Every one was accustomed to take quinine on the occurrence of any symptoms of fever, and hence the blood of the patients contained no parasites and it was said that there was no malaria in the town. The discovery of some specimens of Anophelos modified these views, and led to a search for parasites in the blood of native children, to whom quinine is never given, and in whom they were found to be abundant. True, dengue was also prevalent, and came in epidemics, communicated by a gnat called Culez fatigans, which was common in the town, so that a single imported case might become the source of many others. There was a common form of what was called “simple continued fever”, the cause of which is still unknown, but which affected whole households or workshops, and which, after continuing for four days, was followed by severe prostration often lasting for a considerable time.

During the summer of 1907, after mosquito reduction had been in progress for a year, it was noticed that the fevers were disappearing. An epidemic of dengue occurred in other parts of Egypt, but Port Said escaped. Some of the doctors complained that their practices were diminishing. The life of the town became more active, visitors increased in number, there was more going on, and people were not as ill as they used to be; but it was with children that the changes was most apparent. These, before the campaign was started, were always ailing during the hot weather, and the infantile mortality was enormous. Now they are well and strong, with some colour in their cheeks, able to play upon the beach, and the schools are better attended. The deaths during 1908 were 150 below the annual average for the last five years; while the population increases steadily and the town is growing in size.