Dysentery Incidence Up

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30895, 30 October 1965, Page 22

Dysentery Incidence Up

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, Oct. 29. The number of cases of bacillary dysentery in New Zealand this year is likely to be a record. More than 1000 notifications of the disease have been received and with two months remaining the total is likely to exceed the abnormal total of 1123 last year. Last year’s figure was a sharp increase on the 1963 number of 489.

The totals were 412 in 1962, 501 in 1961, and 408 in 1960. Dr. D. Taylor, deputy direc-tor-general of the Health Department's public health division, said in Wellington today that the medical officers of health in the various districts were keeping a close watch.

Dr. Taylor said that the spread of bowel disease could be reduced by scrupulous attention to personal hygiene, particularly hand washing. Wellington and Lower Hutt districts have been the hardest hit by the dysentery. The weekly average for the country rose after January, and there was a sudden upsurge in August to 394 notifications.

Nearly 200 of these were from Wellington and Lower Hutt. Notifications from Rotorua, New Plymouth, and Wanganui also increased.

Provisional returns for September are nearly 250, with the same areas having the highest incidences. This month notifications have remained relatively light for the South Island and the

upper half of the North Island.

Lately, however, there have been indications that the dysentery is on the rise in the south, notably in Dunedin and Nelson.

Of last year’s total, 68 per cent came from the lower part of the South Island where an outbreak of the disorder—the same one as is prevalent this year—began in Invercargill and spread north to Ashburton.