On the cases of plague admitted to the Auckland Hospital: from March 20th to May 3rd, 1911

Excerpt from an article by J. Campbell Macdiarmid, M.B., Ch.B. (Edin.) and J. Howard Lawry, M.B., Ch.B. (Edin.) and published in NZMJ 1911Aug;10(39):1-19.The first case of plague of the series was admitted to the Auckland Hospital on the 20th March, 1911; it was that of a female, and of the severe bubonic type. The second case, that of a man, the husband of the preceding, was of a mild type in which the bubo did not suppurate. The third case likewise was a male, and worked in other two persons' shop.On admission he showed no glandular enlargement, but four days afterwards he developed definite signs of pneumonic plague, and died early on the morning of the 29th. On the following day a lad of 19, who did not live in the same district as the above, was admitted to the Hospital as a case of Typhoid, but a careful examination revealed the fact that he was suffering from typical bubonic plague, there being a large bubo in the left groin. His case was not of oo severe a type.We must now refer to the case of the nurse who contracted pneumonic plague from the man who died of it. Her recovery was as remarkable as it was unexpected, when one considers the gravity of her condition, complicated as it was, and the high mortality of the disease.This was the last case of plague until May 3rd, when two more bubonic cases were admitted. In regard to the first four cases, we may note that they had lived in places where a high mortality amongst rats had been noticed.