Abstract
AFTER a period of quiescence lasting for just over a year, plague has again appeared in East Anglia. Between December 12, 1906, and January, 1907, there were several cases of what was supposed to be pneumonia in two adjoining cottages in the parish of Shotley. There were three cases in one house, two of which were fatal, and five cases in the other, of which four were fatal. It is believed now that all these were cases of pneumonic plague. In January, 1910, two persons died at Trimley, exactly opposite Shotley, on the other side of the River Orwell, from a disease now believed to have been plague. In September, 1910, four persons died in two adjoining cottages in the village of Freston, six miles from Shotley. On October 10 last a seaman was admitted to the sick quarters of the Shotley Royal Naval Barracks, Suffolk, and subsequently developed symptoms of pneumonia. His sputum was examined, and plague bacilli were found. Although there is no certain proof of the source of infection, it is believed he caught the plague from a rabbit he skinned, and that in so doing he cut his finger. This event is not altogether unexpected, as it was known some weeks ago that rats in the Samford Hundred-the district enclosed by the Rivers Orwell and Stour-were again plague-infected; and a vigorous campaign against the rats is being pursued. When the epidemic occurred last year competent authorities warned the Local Government Board of the need for concerted and widespread action for the extermination of rats in the infected district and the delimitation of the infected area.
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Plague in East Anglia . Nature 88, 56 (1911). https://doi.org/10.1038/088056a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/088056a0