A short study of plague in Madras and Mysore with reference to plague in India
Seal, S.C.; Patnaik, K.C.
Indian Journal of Medical Research 51: 113-152
1963
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-5340 PMID: 13987504 Document Number: 232264
The authors review the recent history of plague in India which took a toll of 1,280,000 lives between 1896 and 1960, mainly in the states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Bombay followed by Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Hyderabad, and Mysore. Since 1957 human plague cases ceased to be reported from most parts of India except certain areas of Madras and Mysore in the south and Himachal Pradesh in the North. During the last decade changing patterns of flea and rat distribution were noted in Calcutta and Bombay and resistance in the flea population was lately reported from several areas in Mysore and from Poona in Maharashtra, where insecticides were frequently used. Also rats in certain areas have been found resistant as tested in the Haffkin Institute, Bombay. Recent field observations indicate that plague persists in a mixture of both resistant and susceptible rat populations and this has been confirmed by experimental study. On-the-spot investigation of plague situation in Madras and Mysore states revealed that from 1952 onwards plague seems to have disappeared among human beings from all the districts of Madras except Hossur taluk of Salem, contiguous with similarly affected Malur taluk of Kolar district of Mysore. Similarly plague disappeared from most of the districts of the latter state except 4 taluks of Kolar district and two of Mysore. Between 1959 and 1961 (September) 72 cases with 26 deaths were reported in Hossur taluk of Madras and 229 cases with 41 deaths in the Kolar and Mysore districts of Mysore. Rat falls (deaths?) generally preceded human cases. The housing, living and environmental conditions in these affected villages in either Madras or Mysore were similar with high rat harborage. Age, sex and seasonal incidence were almost the same in the 2 areas. There were 2 peaks, one in autumn and the other in January, corresponding to the sowing and harvesting season of the local crop (ragi). The authors recommenced that irrespective of the states involved the areas should be considered as one geographical unit, and a uniform and coordinated method of control should be immediately set up to eradicate the foci and to avoid the danger of further spread.