STILL SPREADING.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 184, 4 August 1913, Page 5

STILL SPREADING.

THE ELUSIVE DISEASE. "WHITE" CASE IN THE CITy. ) TYTO IX ADJACENT SUBURBS. No new cases 0 f the existing epidemic were reported to the Health officials res- ' tcrday, -but one was located in "the neighbourhood of Wellesley street this morning. The patient is a European, i aged about 4fl, employed as a dock hand, and he states that he contracted the trouble from a mate who was understood to have chicken-pox recently. After Dr. Spedding had examined the case, it was ordered to the Isolation Hospital, and all contacts were promptly vaccinated. A suspicious case reported from Rej muora on Saturday, and another notified from 'Mount Eden, have proved to be , the prevailing disease in a mild form, ' and, as ample facilities . for isolation i exist at their places of residence, nci- ■ thcr patient has been removed to the Isolation Hospital. The one at Remucra is that of n young man, while at Mount j Eden a young woman is affected, both , being Europeans.Another Maori case has been reported ' ' from Wailicke Island, and steps arc '. being taken to have the patient brought ' ', to hospital. A further European ease has been notified fr Waiuku, and j this also is bring isolated. There are , now (51 patients at Point Chevalier, I Tidings from the country show that. , a Maori died of the trouble at T'unga Pnnga, near Taumnrunui, yesterday, and that two native, cases proved fatal nt ; . Kairara, near Dargavillc. A case is j . reported from Okoroire, and another I from Tauwharc. ; DR. VALTXJTTNE IN WAIKATO. VISITING INFECTED SETTLEMENTS. (By Telegraph.—Owo Correspondent.) lIUNTLY, this day. Dr Valintinc arrived here on Saturday, and the same night held a conference with Ur McDiarmid and Mr .J. P. Bailey, chairman of the Town Board. I The Main Trunk express was stopped j yesterday morning and the party was . 6cfc down at Te Kauwhata. There natives were visited in the infected settlements, 12 cases being investigated, and arrangements being made to feed the natives who have been quarantined. A launch was then taken to Rangiriri. where all infected settlements were inspected. In all, 17 ease* .were investigated, including one fresh case. Dr Vnlintine proceeded to Cambridge, and is leaving ior Auckland this morning. FIVE CASES AT WHAREKAV7A. ' I (By Telegraph.—Own QomipondenU WHITJANGA, this day. Dr. Eade visited "Wharckawa yesterday, and reports live easel oi chickenpox among native*. lie. also reports having vaccinated nil there. PAHIATTTA SCARE OVER. (B? Tclegrnpli.—Pr«j .\CoOclntlon.) PAHIATL'A, Saturday. The local smallpox patient is now convalescent, and will he discharged from the hospital in the course of a few days. ATI contacts have been released since the outbreak. Fully a thousand people have been vaccinated locally. NOT ST.IAI.LPOX. DR. FRAZER HURST'S OPINION. • EIGHTY PER CENT. OF NATIVES AEFI'XTED. Dr I'razer Hurst, superintendent of the 'Whangarei Hospital, when interviewed by a ''Star* 1 reporter in Auckland to-day, said thai in his opinion ' about SO per cent of the natives in the ; •Whangarci district have been affected jto a more or leas extent by the current [disease. It was difficult, he added, to 'accurately estimate the number, because I the Maoris tried to hide their troubles : from the authorities. The visiting doctor gave the reporter a copy of a comprehensive report on the epidemic which he has just reported to the Marsden-Kaipars Hospital Board. After referring to satallpox as one of the nest loathsome .md fatal diseases known to man, Dr I'razer Hurst states that unusually widespread epidemics of chicken-pox occur in which cases of the : disease resemble smallpox in its course, so much so that the eruption in adults ;s commonly like that of smallpox. After pointing out important points , distinguishing liiiia.llpox from chickenpox, Dr Frar.cr Hurst proceeds: "This < description will show you the groat, simi- ' larity of appearance in the two diseases, ,' and also the difference in the general or constitutional effect, Smallpox, however, . is smallpox, and chicken-pox is chickenpox, and the one docs not breed the other, and the description of the present epidemic disease I am laying before you ! should convince you that it is not smallpox xis 1 have described it, nor a 'mild i form' of any <liseaso whatever. The i early symptons are so severe as to make I a diagnosis during the 'typhoid week' exceedingly difficult and uncertain, while I the appearance of a severe of even ' medium case during the 'smallpox week' 1 would Confuse the most experienced of j physicians. One is only enabled to for- ' initiate an opinion by continued obscrva- ' tion throughout a series of cases, and ' the patient tracking of the ramification* ' of the epidemic—a task that take* time owing to the long incubation period— following up and verifying the facts thus . mseoriaincd. Twenty-five cases have been I under observation here (presumably most of the worst in the district); Nine Europeans, four vaccinated and five unvaccinated; and lfl Maoris, two vaccinated and M nnvnerinated," Dr Hurst states that during thn third week after infection cases have been mistaken for typhoid or pneumonia. On or about the seventeenth day after infection the .patient has shivering and head- t acre, with pains in the back and "all * over." Vomiting, giddiness, pains in t.he i abdomen, ncsc bleeding, and pronounced drowsiness have occurred in observed eases. The temperature has risen to 104 degrees, or oven 103 dryers, but falls c after two days, with marked improve- q ment oCtbe symptom*. mid even greater o relief. is *xpcxiracc<L with the full onset: o of tho smb. on ihe ■twoirtyWlnst day, y This iis<iM <*serws4<m tho face, but fl tfritoennxb*!*?, J*

spreads over the body and to the limbs. In pakeha cases the Misters are more watery, in tho Maori milky, and the base is marked, as it were, by a line of scariet thread. In tho face of severe, cases, the eruption is so closely set and confluent that the face is swollen fill it looks like a plum pudding with the currants outside, as the blister* dry into black sea lis. Before, drying off, however, many of them break, and yellowish crusts form, giving an appearance exactly corresponding to that of smallpox. Some of the spots are umbilicated (dimpled), but most are not as n rule. In some eases a number are -found in. the mouth and ears, but only two cases have had sore eyes. Only in the most severe cases has there been any rise in temperature during the "smallpox week," and even then of a mild degree merely. "Indeed," adds the doctor, "it is almost uncanny to see one of these cases (that ought to be going to die if he has smallpox) suddenly sit up and inquire anxiously regarding the dinner hour." The doctor expresses sirrprise at finding how little pitting has occurred, in i view of the difficulty of pcisnading the ; Maoris not to pick at their pustular rashes. "Regarding the value of vaccination," he states, "the evidence is most conflicting. There certainly to have been evidence In certain cases of its protective value, but, stating -the facts as [ they are in my own knowledge, I have in the 2o cases treated here had six who ' had been vaccinated, and in none of them ' did it appear to modify the course of the disease in any way. I know also of two ' cases not in hospital where the disease developed subsequent to successful vac- ' cination. A* regards vaccination after i recovery. I know of one case fiuooccsfnlly I vaccinated, and have another on author- I ily I thin!: is reliable, but have not yet ' been able to personally see. I have been vaccinated myself eight times, and I am convinced of its efficacy to protect : against smallpox, and so long as tho I mntter is in doubt advise all those who i have not, been vaccinated within tho last 10 years to be vaccinated ut the first convenient opportunity."