Treating Infectious Diseases

We all know from recent months that the effects of quick spreading infectious diseases and viruses can be devastating. During the 19th century, the number of cases of Cholera and Typhoid were uncontrollable in areas where living conditions were overcrowded and squalid, and where there was poor general health. In fact, Florence Nightingale was the first health professional to make a connection between poor hygiene and the importance of hand washing, to reduce the spread of infectious diseases. The same advice that we have been given during the current pandemic, ‘WASH YOUR HANDS’.

Outbreaks of infectious diseases such as smallpox, tuberculosis and diphtheria have been documented for thousands of years. By the twentieth century however, the rates of infectious disease had significantly dropped thanks to improvements in hygiene, sanitation, and the increased availability of vaccines. In fact, vaccination is one of the greatest international public health achievements in preventing disease.
In 1918 when the Spanish Flu struck, the effects on health care was devastating. In the Nursing Times in 1918, we see what it was like for nurses caring for fever-stricken patients:

“Temporary wood partitions have been put up between each bed…on each partition is hung a sheet wrung out in Lysol and kept wet…Every nurse, doctor, ward-maid, char-woman who enters the epidemic block must wear the mask and overall.” (Nursing Times, 1918)

By the early twentieth century, nurses were taking a more active role in caring for infectious patients. They washed and fed patients, applied poultices and lotions, and monitored the patient’s temperature and breathing. Infected patients, particularly those with tuberculosis, would be admitted to a sanitorium. These institutions were often converted hospitals or halls with large open-air balconies and porches, where patients could get lots of fresh air. The role of the nurse would be to maintain a well-ventilated ward and high standards of hygiene.

Hefferston Grange Sanitorium, Weaverham bought by Warrington Corporation in 1921 as a Tuberculosis sanitorium

The first ever officially recorded case of cholera in England was in Sunderland during October of 1831. By December, the first severe outbreak occurred at Killingworth Colliery in Newcastle. In June of 1832 Warrington town council announced that ‘Indian Cholera’ had arrived in Warrington. A Cholera hospital was set up in Mersey Street to deal with the high numbers of people expected to die. Official records show that 169 people died of cholera in Warrington as part of the 1832 outbreak, though the actual numbers may be higher. In Britain 32,000 people died during the outbreak of 1831-1832.

Flyer issued during the Cholera Epidemic in Warrington, 1832 (Archive Collections)

Following concerns over the large number of fever cases in Warrington, Aiken Street Fever Hospital opened in the 1870s. Housing approximately 110 beds in open plan wards with little privacy, it was used to treat infectious diseases and the hospital was likely to have been very smelly. The Fever Hospital was absorbed into Warrington General Hospital in the 1930s and remained open until the 1950s.

Plan of wards at Aiken Street Fever Hospital, Warrington