Search Results for 'smallpox'

Week II

Two in five people believe the Covid-19 pandemic will never be fully over, according to new research carried out by Ipsos for the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA).

Two in five people believe the Covid-19 pandemic will never be fully over, according to new research carried out by Ipsos for the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA).

With smallpox sufferers in make-shift refuges such as out-buildings, rooms in the Loughrea barracks, and in sheds outside Dr Leonard’s home, all hopes are placed on the ready-made iron hospital ordered from Messrs Braby and Co. London. The hospital was to accommodate 12 patients, but already within five weeks of the first case being reported in Athenry, there were 20 cases of smallpox, three of whom had died.

The initial refusal by the Loughrea Workhouse hospital to accept smallpox patients was smartly over ruled by the Local Government Board (LGB). It suggested that some out-houses or offices, at the hospital, could be converted to receive the patients while keeping them separate from the other sick. It was satisfied that the resident doctor there, Dr Lynch, ‘will afford valuable advice and assistance’. The board warned that it was essential smallpox sufferers were kept isolated from other people. However, the Loughrea Board of Guardians, with responsibility for the hospital, did not heed the rebuke.

On March 2 1875, the medical officer of the Athenry Dispensary District, Dr WJ Leonard, wrote an urgent letter to the Local Government Board (LGB) in Dublin, regretting to report a ‘very bad case of smallpox’ which had come into his district the previous day. He briefly described how it was discovered:

An interesting number of medical institutions were established in Galway in the 20th century. In 1908 the Port Sanitary Intercepting Hospital was built near the docks opposite Forthill Cemetery as quarantine for any suspected cases of cholera or smallpox that might have come in on board ship. It cost £1,000, had 20 beds, and happily it was never needed for its primary purpose and only ever housed three patients. It burnt down in 1966.