Cust Well Water Ruled Unsafe

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29746, 13 February 1962, Page 14

Cust Well Water Ruled Unsafe

Well water from Cust tested by the Dominion Laboratory is “definitely not satisfactory for drinking," according to the Medical Officer of Health (Dr. L. F. Jepson). Residents have been advised to boil their drinking water and the Health Department has begun discussions with the Rangiora County Council on ways of improving the supply The tests were initiated by the department after a series of cases of infective hepatitis tn the area. Tests were also taken of well water from Burnham, where there was an outbreak among schoolchildren late last year, and the department is in the course of collecting samples from Culverden, which has had 16 confirmed cases of the disease this year. The Burnham water was satisfactory. Dr. Jepson said. The samples taken from household wells at Cust, which are all shallow wells, showed considerable bacterial pollution Dr Jepson explained that there was at present no routine test for the infective hepatitis virus, but the extent of the bacterial pollution indicated that the virus was probably finding little difficulty in getting into the wells. Last week, only one case of infective hepatitis was notified from Cust proper, but four cases were reported from the adjoining district of Summerhill. The Summerhill wells have not yet been tested. At Culverden, two cases were reported last week This was the lowest weekly figure since the beginning of the

year. There were four the previous week, three in the week ended January 27, and a total of seven in the preceding fortnight. Other cases reported during the week were from Bumham (one). Rangiora (one), and Christchurch (three), making a total for the week of 12.

During the week, 11 cases of malaria were reported, all in servicemen returned from Malaya. Dr Jepson said that the rather large figure reflected the relatively big recent influx of men returning from the area. The infection was usually cleared up very quickly with modern drugs, and there was no chance of local mosquitos being infected from the patients. The other cases of notifiable diseases reported during the week were two of tuberculosis One of these was picked up by the Health Department mass X-ray unit during its Christchurch survey last year. One tuberculosis patient died during the week.