OUTBREAK of PARALYSIS

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25391, 14 January 1948, Page 6

OUTBREAK of PARALYSIS

NO NEW CASES IN CHRISTCHURCH YOUTH IN ' HOSPITAL SERIOUSLY ILL No new cases of infantile paralysis were reported in Christchurch yesterday, according to the District Medical Officer of Health (Dr. J. H. Blakelock). Two positive cases are still patients in the Christchurch Public Hospital. One, a woman aged 28, was reported yesterday to be making very satisfactory progress. The other, a youth aged 16, is on the seriously ill list. Dr. Blakelock said that, generally speaking, his department’s advice against bathing in sewage-polluted waters had been compflied with satisfactorily. _ Asked whether the reopening of factories after the holidays, with the possible employment of juvenile labour, would cause any concern about the spread of poliomyelitis, Dr. Blakelock said this created no additional risk. Before a juvenile under the age of 16 could be employed in a factory, the Factories Act of 1946 required that he should be medically examined and approval given to an application to be employed. The type of employment proposed had to be satisfactory, and the Health Department would automatically know where each juvenile worker was going. Not a great number of juveniles were employed in factories. Between April 1, 1947, when the provisions of the Factories Act, 1946, became operative, and December 31, 273 juveniles were medically examined for factory work in the Canterbury and West Coast health district. This total, of coufse, represented only new employees. Dr. Blakelock added that the employment of juveniles in conditions other than those where such normal controls as over factories did not exist had caused concern because of the outbreak. Positions in shops, as messenger boys or other jobs which brought them in contact with the public, were the particular types of employment which juveniles under 16 were asked to avoid.

ANOTHER CASE IN AUCKLAND s , (P.A.) AUCKLAND, Jan. 13. A child from the south of Auckland, who was admitted to the Auckland Hospital on Monday as h suspected case of infantile paralysis was diagnosed as a positive case to-day. There were no further admissions. A man who had been a positive case was discharged on Monday. There were 51 positive cases and four suspected cases in hospital tonight, compared with 56 positive cases and six suspects last week. NO WELLINGTON CASES (P.A.) WELLINGTON, January No cases of infantile paralysis, suspected or positive, were admitted to the Wellington Hospital to-day. A suspect from Tawa Flat, taken to hospital last evening, was diagnosed today as negative. CASES REPORTED IN AUSTRALIA (N.Z.P.A.—Reuter —Copyright) SYDNEY, January 13. There have been nine cases of infantile paralysis in Sydney in the last 12 days. The Metropolitan Medical Officer of Health (Dr. Grahame Drew) said last night that any child who had been in contact with a person suffering from infantile paralysis should be isolated for three weeks. Another suspected case has been admitted to hospital in Adelaide, where the outbreak is still classed as a minor epidemic. Some cases have been reported in widely scattered areas of Queensland and Western Australia.