MUSEUM BLOG
The Spanish Flu at KGH: A Frequent and Quick Killer
The following data were obtained from the Admissions and Death Registers at Kingston General Hospital (KGH) for investigation during the research project. Within the Registers, cases of influenza were often associated with other diseases, most frequently pneumonia. If reference to ‘influenza’ was made in the patient’s Reason for Admittance, that individual was included in the cohort being studied. With such a high incidence of pneumonia developing from influenza during the Spanish flu, those with ‘pneumonia’ were also included in the cohort. However, because pneumonia may also develop from a myriad of conditions unrelated to the flu, diagnoses of ‘pneumonia and other non-influenzal disease’ were not included (e.g., anemia and pneumonia).
The Prophylactic Treatment of the Spanish Influenza
With the wide-sweeping devastation of the Spanish Influenza in the Fall of 1918, communities around the world were eager to come together and share insights and ideas about protective treatments and therapies.
From Variolation to Cowpox Vaccination: The First Steps Towards Eradicating Smallpox
Edward Jenner looms large in the history of vaccination. Known today as the “father of immunology,” Jenner is most famous for developing a vaccine against smallpox in the 1790s. The vaccine brilliantly made use of common knowledge. Milkmaids were known for having noticeably clear and smooth skin. They had, it seemed, managed to develop an immunity to smallpox by suffering (and surviving) a bout of the much milder cowpox.
A Fighting Chance: Disease, Public Health, and the Military, Part 3
From a medical point of view the two military campaigns to capture the Dutch island of Walcheren – the first in 1809, the second in 1944 – could not have been more different. The 1809 British expedition was ravaged by disease, a lethal combination of malaria, typhus, typhoid fever, and dysentery that infected over 60% of the force, killed over 4,000 soldiers, and left tens of thousands as casualties.
A Fighting Chance: Disease, Public Health, and the Military, Part 2
Two of the most remarkable stories in military medical history happened in the exact same place: Walcheren, a strip of land that sits like a cork in the mouth of the Scheldt River running through the Netherlands and Belgium.
Raising Awareness about Tuberculosis – World TB Day, 24 March 2012 Pt. 1
Tuberculosis is caused by an infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, rod-shaped bacteria that are spread mostly through air-born droplets or dust micro-particles of dried sputum.Those who develop active pulmonary tuberculosis experience a range of signs and symptoms, including chest pain, cough, weight loss, pallor, fever, and night sweats.
History of Health: Why is it important?
Jane and John Smith born in Kingston in 1810 and 1812, respectively, had a life expectancy of forty years. Jane and John Jones born in Kingston in 2009 and 2011, respectively, look forward to a life expectancy of eighty years. What accounts for this striking difference?