Page 687 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

85 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF THF. PERSIAN GULF

Tho European ward has been the most successful, and many naval
patients have benefited from it.
The number of patients treated by the Agency Surgeon has been gradu­
ally declining during recent years. The statistics of former years have
shown as many as 5,000 patients as against the present year’s figures of
3,000. This, no doubt, is almost entirely due to the institution of the
American Mission dispensary at Muttra. Naturally all Muttra patients
now go there for treatment as well as many sick and wounded from the
interior, as their road to Maskat lies through Muttra. Probably the number
of persons in receipt of modern medical relief greatly exceeds the statistics
of former years.

Npte on the epidemic of plague which occurred in Maskat and neighbourhood
during spring of 1911 by Captain N. N. G. C. McVean, M.D.,
Agency Surgeon, Maskat.
The first case of plague appeared on the 4th March 1911 among some
pilgrims in the quarantine station who had arrived on the 27th of February
1911 in a pilgrim ship; no case had appeared during the voyage of some ten
days from Jeddah. This case was a very mild one.
On the loth of March 1911, a second case, that of a sepoy on duty,
occurred in quarantine; this case died the same day.
On the 30th March, a few cases were discovered at Sidab, a village about
half a mile from the quarantine station and about a mile and a half from
Maskat; the disease had probably existed only for a few days previously
there; Sidab was isolated and all*communication with Maskat stopped.
About this time, it was reported that rats were dying in Maskat, very
few were seen and these showed no signs of plague; however, a case of
bubonic plague occurred in Maskat, on the 6th April, followed by a second
on the 11th April; after that cases became more frequent and there were a
few also in Muttra; the epidemic continued till the 23th May, the number of
cases decreasing as the weather got hotter. In all 76 cases with 67 deaths
were reported; it was very difficult to get accurate information as the natives
objected to notifying cases; the majority of cases were not reported till after
death.
However, it is improbable that there were many more cases, as a watch
was kept on the number of deaths occurring. Most of the cases were of
bubonic plague, but there were also a good many cases of septicaemic plague.
The inhabitants of Maskat were advised to take the usual precautions.
Simple rules were framed and translated into the different languages spoken
here. About seventy-five people were inoculated with anti-plague serum; no
cases occurred among the inoculated so far as is known, but most of the
inoculating was done at a rather late period of the epidemic as at first there
was a general belief that the epidemic would soon be over.