A look at health history in old Kuwait
‘Life was full of uncertainties’
Photo and story by Claudia
Farkas Al Rashoud
Describing health conditions in Kuwait about a century ago, Dr Eleanor Calverly pointed out that diseases that often occur later in life, such as arthritis, diabetes, and hardening of the arteries, were not at all common. “Perhaps this was because a large percentage of the population died young,” she surmised in her book, “My Arabian Days and Nights, A Medical Missionary in Old Kuwait.”
Since COVID 19 has brought the subject of health to the forefront it seems an appropriate time to look at the history of health issues in Kuwait including epidemics, endemic diseases, and quarantine. How did Kuwait’s inhabitants fare in the face of disease before modern medicine?
Not too well, judging by the written accounts of the American Mission Hospital doctors who practiced in Kuwait at the beginning of the last century, and the British Political Agent to Kuwait, Colonel Harold Dickson, and his wife Dame Violet, who came to Kuwait with their two young children in 1929.
In his comprehensive account of traditional bedouin life in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, The Arab of the Desert, Colonel Dickson said, “At first sight the Badawin appears to be a fine physical specimen, and so he usually is, but this is because only the fittest survive … A Badawin will beget up to fifteen children, of which perhaps three to four survive.”
Malnutrition, impure drinking water, infections, and contagious diseases were cited as common factors that led to mortality in children and adults.
Dr Calverly, who practiced at the American Mission Hospital from 1911 to 1929, wrote that, “Although no statistics were ever compiled in those days, the rate of infant mortality in general seemed to us appalling. We considered that the deaths were due both to the unrestrained incidence of infection and to lack of knowledge regarding the effective care and feeding of infants. The utter poverty of many parents must have been responsible for the failure of their children to survive.”
Supplies
Among many heartbreaking cases, Dr Calverly recalled a woman who appealed to her to save her young son, the only one of her thirteen children to survive. Observing the boy’s small size for his age and his weak condition, Dr Calverly inquired about his diet. The mother replied that the only food she had for her family was plain boiled rice. The doctor was able to provide the mother with canned milk for the boy from supplies that had been donated by friends in America.
A book called Health in Kuwait, published by Kuwait Oil Company, mentions that health problems from malnutrition continued well into the middle of the twentieth century. The purpose of the book was to educate expatriate KOC staff and their spouses about health conditions in Kuwait and advise them on what measures to take to remain healthy while living here.
The book was given to me by Mrs Dorothy Scudder, widow of the last American Mission Hospital doctor. She served as Director of Nursing at Kuwait’s Military Hospital until 1990. No date of publication appears in the book, but Mrs Scudder had said it was published around the late 1940s or early 1950s.
“The desert which enfolds Kuwait
Kuwait Grand Mosque, an architectural beauty in the heart of the city.
upon three sides, is the dominating influence upon the local community, dictating the philosophy, way of life, and daily habits. It produces little vegetation. Lack of vegetation means malnutrition, which by lowering resistance, greatly predisposes to the incidence of infection. Apathy and lowered resistance pave the way to spread of disease,” the book’s unknown author warned. “This applies to the indigenous population. If you eat an ordinary mixed diet you need have no fear of malnutrition or vitamin lack.”
The author continued on a more cheerful note. “The desert is responsible for some important mitigating factors. Because of lack of vegetation the insect population is less than it might be. Because of the dry desert air, spread of infection by droplet is reduced.
“With the development in Kuwait of the Quarantine Service, and the Kuwait Health Service, it may be expected that the importation of disease will become steadily reduced and controlled.”
Kuwait’s quarantine system actually had its origins during the time of Shaikh Mubarak Al Sabah who ruled Kuwait from 1896 until 1915. In the Qatar Digital Library, “File XVI/4, Establishment of a Quarantine Station at Kuwait”, original source British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, there are 97 folios. This flood of correspondence between the Political Agency in Kuwait and the Political Residency in Bushire, Iran and other British officials, was in part prompted by an outbreak of plague in Bahrain. Some of the documents were typed on manual machines with worn out keys and faded ribbons; other papers were written by hand with fountain pens in difficult-to-decipher cursive script.
I confess I was unable to learn from the folios the exact date Kuwait’s quarantine system was established, but the following quote sheds some light on the subject.
In a letter from a Sir George Varundur, writing from Colombo to British Political Agent to Kuwait Major S.G. Knox in 1907, he refers to Shaikh Mubarak saying, “I am very glad he has installed quarantine which must be for the benefit of his port. Such wise acts on his part tend to remove any pretext for interference from outsiders… I like Mubarak and admire his independent character.” all as an example. Harold then suggested to her that a white tent be put up in the safat, or market-place, so that she could attend each morning and afternoon with a couple of male helpers and do the vaccinations there. He also offered to assist himself.”
Dame Violet stated that all the schoolboys in the Koranic schools were taken under guard and forcibly vaccinated. When people observed that none of the boys contracted smallpox, public confidence in the vaccine grew.
Sight
“In the first ten days of the epidemic over 4,000 persons died,” she wrote. “It was a terrifying sight to see the corpses being carried daily to their last resting-place. But so great was the secrecy that we could not find out if cases had occurred in the houses of our own servants. For a whole month Dr Barney worked morning and evening, until at last all who could come had been vaccinated… In June I was glad to leave for England with the two children, but Harold stayed on, and saw much suffering among the Kuwaitis during that whole summer.”
Dame Violet went on to mention friends that succumbed to smallpox. Shaikh Ahmad’s chief guide and falconer, named Nazaal, came down with the disease and the ruler was extremely upset. In those days there was a common belief that the only cure for smallpox was a particular smell, different in every case, with the problem being to discover exactly which smell it was.
“In Nazaal’s case every possible thing was brought before him, fruit, flowers, vegetables, cooked food, etc. Then children, young women, and old women, were made to pass before him, but still he did not get better,” Dame Violet wrote.
A fox and a hare were brought to Nazaal from the desert, but the animals did not have the desired effect. Finally, a pair of hubara, the bustards that are the natural prey of falcons in this part of the world, were discovered in a remote location. Most of the bustards had already migrated north, but when the two hubara, although skinny and in poor condition, were brought within smelling-range of Nazaal, he began to recover.
According to Dame Violet, the falconer lived for many more years, but sadly, “Down every street and in every home at least half the children had died. Kuwait was a sad town without the laughter of children playing in the streets, and those who did recover were pock-marked for life, and some even blinded in one eye.”
The residents of old Kuwait certainly had their fare share of hardships, but they faced them bravely through a deep-rooted belief in Islam. Zahra Freeth, daughter of Colonel Dickson and Dame Violet, lived in Kuwait as a child and returned frequently as an adult to visit her mother. She wrote about the Kuwaiti population’s outlook on life in the pre-oil era in her book, Kuwait - Prospect and Reality.
“There were few comforts in the average Kuwaiti family’s daily life in those days and no protection against sickness or epidemics. For both bedouin and townspeople, life was full of uncertainties and in the natural hazards of the wilderness and the oceans, all were conscious of man’s helplessness and the need for a protecting God. Favorable conditions - good rainfall and pasture, or fair sailing winds and good trading profit, or the natural joys of family life such as the birth of children - were seen as manifestations of God’s bounty. Gratitude for His beneficence was constantly on their lips, but complaint never.”