HISTORY TALKING by HELEN McANULTY. EPIDEMICS

In a world where our fears of drought, fire, flood and now a pandemic, are fuelled by an enthusiastic media, the Oral History Group thought it appropriate to look back at a past which, while no less fraught with danger, had far fewer resources to deal with such events.

In keeping with the times this month, instead of meeting together, we communicated by phone and email, avoiding close contact as advised.

Over the years there have been quite a few diseases which have made life unpleasant for the world’s citizens.

One of the most frightening of these was what was known to most people as the Spanish Flu and to others, more colourfully, as the Black Plague because of the bluish appearance of many of its sufferers.

It was thought to have originated in the USA and was brought to Europe by American soldiers in the last years of the First World War where it began to strike down people already weakened by years of war and deprivation. It remains one of the great natural disasters of recorded history, thought by some experts to rival the Black Death of 14th Century Europe. In Australia it affected the lives of millions of people and probably more than fifteen thousand died in a period of six months.

Sydney saw its first case in January 1919 and it reached Orange in March. There was little that could be done for the sick beyond careful nursing. The Orange Leader reported at the time that “doctors and nurses were worked to death.”

The Leader also had a warning for people who were self-medicating: “Alcohol has neither a preventative nor curative effect. Avoid it!”

The makers of patent medicines also had a field day. “Pruno for influenza never fails,” claimed one, while Alfred and George Nicholas’ Aspro had apparently produced a miracle cure.

The general public also joined in with advice printed in The Leader. Mrs C.H. Hodge from The Hermitage, Orange, suggested that “carrying  a stick of cinnamon and chewing at it from time to time would be helpful”, while some claimed that “a mixture of lime and milk would help “even if the patient is on the brink of death”.

Despite all this 225 people in Orange became ill and 14 died.

Plagues and epidemics have always been with us: smallpox, typhoid, bubonic plague and leprosy were all before our time but we knew tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, tetanus, meningitis, gastroenteritis, whooping cough, influenza, measles, mumps, scarlet fever and chicken pox. Most of these today can be prevented or cured.

But in 1881 it was a different matter. With a smallpox epidemic raging in Sydney and panic gripping the population, 500 acres of land were allocated for an emergency quarantine hospital to be built in scrubby country near La Perouse. It eventually became the Prince Henry Hospital for Infectious Diseases and it was here that Dorothea began her nursing training. By this time smallpox was a thing of the past but there were many other infectious diseases to be confronted.

Poliomyelitis was one of these and, for patients whose breathing had been compromised, iron lungs were a necessity.

“The polio epidemics were dreadful,” Dot told us. “So many young people died or were in iron lungs for very long periods. The patients who were in iron lungs had just their head and neck protruding. We had to pull them out quickly to wash them and put them back in and pump, often by hand, to get the pressure up again.

“There was also diphtheria,” went on Dot, “and often tracheotomies had to be performed to help people breathe.”

Dot and the staff at the hospital were also in charge of people with leprosy, a horrifying disease which was still affecting people from the islands to the north.

When the Oral History Group were children they were lucky enough to have many diseases almost eliminated by the introduction of mass immunisation.

The big spectre of our childhoods was polio. There were major epidemics in Australia in the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

“Death and crippling were very common,” said Keith. Three of Di’s childhood friends were struck down with only one surviving.

“I knew three people who caught polio who were crippled,” added Barbara.

The reality of polio was stark. To survive often meant living for the rest of their lives with crippled limbs and constant pain.

When the Salk vaccination finally arrived in 1955 everyone drew a sigh of relief. Keith, John and Dick all remembered lining up to receive it.

We all had measles, mumps and chicken pox but were lucky enough to be vaccinated against the dreadful diseases of diphtheria and whooping cough.

Today we are so fortunate to have had so many diseases eliminated because of the work of scientists who have developed vaccinations against devastating illnesses which have plagued mankind for centuries, some of which the Oral History Group have remembered.