An Epidemic in C.M.S. Victoria Home and Orphanage, Kowloon City, Hong-kong

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XVI, Issue 4, 1 October 1927, Page 208

An Epidemic in C.M.S. Victoria Home and Orphanage, Kowloon City, Hong-kong

(By " Not-a-Nurse.")

"Ku Neung (title for addressing a foreign lady), please look at A. Fung" (one of the orphans).

We looked — and there was no mistake about it — A Fung had the measles.

Picture to yourself an L-shaped dormitory with beds — boards on trestles, you would say — six feet long, packed m a double row right down the length on one side, and m a single row on the other side, with a narrow passage-way m the middle. Some beds joined, but m no case more than a foot's space separated them. A. Fung was one of the hundred and forty who slept on these beds. Have any of the others been infected, we wondered, as we sent her off to Kwong Wah Hospital. A few days passed with a few weary little folk lying on their beds too tired to go into school, and then out came the crimson rashes. It was no use trying to avoid the fact — measles had come to stay.

We have a tiny dormitory about twelve feet square, and there we tried to isolate our paients. One little girl, more sleepy than the rest, seemed to be breathing too quickly. Oh ! how we longed for a nurse to tell us what to do and how to care for them all ! "We must call the doctor," we said, and he came — a thin, tall man with a tired looking face, but kindly blue eye. "She's got double pneumonia," he said, "and must go at once to hospital, but there isn't any hope for her." This sounded bad; but as he himself called the ambulance and took her to hospital we knew all that could be done would be done. She was only eight years old — had been sold by her parents to be a slave —

was treated cruelly by her purchasers, and finally, being thrown out of a window, was left for dead. The Christian Hospital doctor m Yunnan chanced to pass by and picked her up. In the hospital, after months of patient nursing, she recovered, and her purchasers, hearing of her whereabouts, wanted her back. Fearing they might steal her, the Christian doctor sent her over a week's journey by land and sea to us, and still pays for her support.

Each day brought more patients ; each day the doctor came. "We don't know why the rash does not come out on this one, doctor." After a minute or two of examination we were told this one had pneumonia m one lung, and not measles. "Leave her where she is, put a blanket under her, and give her only milk to drink" (a beverage she detested).

Next day two very sleepy folk were waiting the doctor's visit, attended by their respective grandmothers, for their mothers were dead. "They are both very ill. Can you isolate them?" So they were carried into our own quarters to our tiny guest room. That night one put forth long worms, and the other liver fluke worms. Next day the former was better, but the latter — the little one — was worse, and the doctor said he would come again m the evening. After seeing his patient he asked us to prepare to keep a steam kettle going all night while he returned to hospital for drugs. We rigged up one m the only fashion we knew and were hardly finished when he came back with the ambulance. No risks must be run with the little life; so she

went to Kwong Wall, and according to Chinese custom, her relations went with her. She was given the usual drugs to make her sleep, which the Chinese grandmother could not understand. In the absence of the doctor and against the wishes of the Chinese nurse, she would pick the child up m her arms and try to make her talk. The matter was reported and she was warned of the consequences, but she persisted m her devotion, and the little life departed.

So the days passed with some quite simple cases ; others very perplexing, till at the end of three weeks the doctor said drastic measures must be taken to stamp out the disease. He came with the ambulance, and m two trips carried away our last eight patients — -the last of twenty-eight cases.

It was amusing afterwards to hear Dr. Ips version of the telephone call and the request to take m immediately eight patients with measles, but Dr. Ip, the Chinese doctor m charge of Kwong Wah Hospital, is not the man to be daunted by any request for help. He passed through St. Paul's College, carrying off all the honours, was a brilliant University student, speaking English as fluently as Chinese, and now is noted for his resourcefulness and his skill m the use of medicine. He is, moreover, a true Christian gentleman, winning love and respect from all. Kwong Wah is far too big a hospital to be supervised by one person. There are no foreign nurses to see that the Chinese nurses are trained to be scrupulously clean, and the consequence is that skin diseases are easily caught. We were very anxious when we

saw our eight go there, for our previous visits had taught us they might come back with something worse than measles. The day after our eight left was beautifully fine, and everything that could be taken outside went out to be sunned. Everything inside was scoured with Jeyes fluid, much to the disgust of the Chinese, who seem to have an innate dislike to this kind of cleanser. Worse was to follow, for m a few clays the sanitary authorities arrived with formalin, and m a very short time the whole place was sprayed and floors were washed with "the offensive stuff." Bed . covers, mosquito nets, etc., were taken away to be steamed, and we felt sure not a single microbe could be left alive. Daily visits had to be paid at Kwong Wah, for our eight were so hungry that we had to supply a mid-day meal. Poor Chinese eat only twice daily, and this is the custom at Kwong Wah. After two Aveeks the doctor gave his consent to our eight returning! Amid great rejoicing we brought them back. One was discovered to have brought back chicken pox. and we feared another epidemic; but only a few mild cases eventuated. Would you believe it — two days later was a big girl with a home m a village another case of measles appeared ! She not far distant, so we sent here there. Now, m accordance with new Government regulations, we are reducing our numbers so that each bed may have eighteen inches space around it, and we hope never again to have another case of measles m Victoria Home.