Dr Ashburton Thompson Interviewed
Dr. Ashburton Thompson reassured the public that there was no immediate cause for panic, explaining that bubonic plague was less contagious than commonly believed and that effective precautions were being taken. While he believed the disease would eventually reach Australia, he was confident that prompt public health measures could prevent it from becoming established in Sydney.
DR. ASHBURTON THOMPSON INTERVIEWED
In the course of an interview with a reporter of the S.M. Herald, Dr. Ashburton Thompson (president of the Board of Health), in answer to a question regarding the danger of contagion, should this prove to be a case of the plague, remarked:
"The popular notion regarding the bubonic plague is that it is dangerous to come within a stone's throw of a patient; but this is an absolute mistake. The disease is one which appears in all degrees. It can certainly destroy life inside of five days, but it rarely does so. On the other hand, a large number of cases occur which probably would not be taken as being plague unless there was cause to believe that the plague was present in the neighbourhood.
"The fact is that, excepting in a particular form of plague, which fortunately is rare, there is very little danger. Nurses or doctors who take the disease are few in number, and mostly contagion is received because of wounds in the hands when making a post-mortem examination of the body of some person who has died of the disease.
"In Hong Kong, for instance, a large number of medical men were present studying the disease, eleven of whom were Japanese. No doctors caught the disease excepting the Japanese; only three of those took it. The reason was ascribed to their not always washing their hands after attending upon a patient.
"I think that the plague is less dangerous, so far as contagion is concerned, than scarlet fever, and between the plague and typhus fever there is absolutely no comparison whatever. It is exceedingly dangerous for any person who has not had typhus fever to go into the room occupied by such a patient, to say nothing of the risk run by the nurse or doctor attending upon such a patient. There is not this amount of risk with the plague."
In response to a query as to how the plague did spread, Dr. Thompson said:
"The plague can undoubtedly be spread by means of the clothes worn by a person who has had the disease, but the patient must have been suffering from a very virulent form in order to produce such infection.
"A good deal has been said about rats communicating the disease. They undoubtedly do so. That may account for the disease spreading irregularly. It will appear in one street and miss another street close by.
"At the same time, it has for a long time been a puzzle to know how rats communicate the disease to man. As the result of constant observation, there seems to be very little doubt indeed that the infection is conveyed from the rats to man by the intermediary agency of fleas and other like insects.
"Therefore, preventive measures must be directed against rats and fleas and similar pests. If you try to catch the rats about a house, or try to poison them, they become scared and spread, and thus carry the disease, and merely whitewashing and disinfecting the house may fail to have the desired effect.
"Nevertheless, people who live in decently constructed and well-kept dwellings need have very little fear unless infection is directly transmitted to them by other means. If a dead rat is found, and there is thought to be danger of infection, boiling water should be thrown over the animal, and then there will be no bad result."
Dr. Thompson was asked whether he thought there was any real cause for alarm, and he replied:
"I do not think at present there is any cause for alarm whatever. There need be no panic. Every precaution is being taken. I know what the plague is, and I am not going to let it get a foothold in Sydney."