THE SMALLPOX SCARE.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14686, 7 June 1913, Page 7

THE SMALLPOX SCARE.

MORE CASES SUSPECTED

(6PECIAI. TO " TUB PItES s -"' AUCKLAND, Ju no 6 ' The condition of James Rukut.il, the halK-asto Maori who was isolated yesterday on suspicion that he was suffering from smallpox, eight days auvanccd, is stated to bo improving today. Some cases have been reported at Mangcro, and the inmates of the residences affected aro being kept in isolation. Tho precautions of fumigation are also being resorted to extensively in tho neighbourhood. Tho difficulty of tracing the outbreak to a aerialte source is causing the Hea.th authorities some concern, and they are exerckkig all possible vigilance on tl.at account. As MonJav will bo the twelfth day of Hukutr.i's n'ck::tJ,s, it should then bo pt.-ssiblc for the doctors to declare withnit possibility of doubt whether tho trouolo is smnlipox or merely chickenpox, as one or two doctors suggest. Dr. Monk, tho Assistant-District EL-nth Officer, after attending tr.e p.-'tient to-dry, stated th'it he did not think the c.'s'e would prove to be true smallpox. At the parce tkne, he said that if the case had occurred in England, it would h.ivfr been put down definitely as smallpox. TBOUBLF. AT MAXCFRE. Durirg the forenoon a resident of Mnmr,'ip?ro reported to the police at O-ic'ninga that some Maoris living nr.'jr t'"e rope-work'?, about a rniie beyond the Mangoro bridge, were suffering from some which had tho n.npcar.'iico of chickenpox or smallpox. Dr. jlonk went out to Mangcre, and on reinrning to town ho stated that ho !"fui i?c!a!e;l in tkeir own homes the members of three Maori families who were suffering from a mild attack of some pock cli.se/ise. He added that different members of the families in qner.t'lon had siclr-ned, but that none of them was suffer-in:; 'acutely. Dr. Monk ako staled that no correction could be traced between tho Mnngero ec-r-s and that ro-V i in the isolation ward at Point CI cvalicx. A lnr r .'e number of people are taking precautions against smallpox, and several doctors aro hc'.nrr kept busy vrccinnting them. In order to'cope with the number ef people wishing to ho vnceinnntf d, ??QQ~ tubes of lymph havo ocen sent to Auckland from* Wellington for use by tho doctors engaged in the work.