WIDE SEARCH FOR SMALLPOX CONTACT

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32879, 30 March 1972, Page 11

WIDE SEARCH FOR SMALLPOX CONTACT

f N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

HANOVER (West Germany), March 29.

Police and health authorities today appealed for nation* wide help in finding a 40-year-old West German man with a mental condition who disappeared after unknowingly having direct contact with a Jugoslav suffering from smallpox.

The appeal was being made after officials located nearly 600 people who had contact with the Jugoslav, Mr Eyup Hodcay, aged 30. A total of 371 were put in official quarantine up to last night and 200 others were ordered to remain in their homes.

Health authorities also renewed a plea to the Hanover population to take advantage of free precautionary smallpox inoculations after only 1000 were inoculated yesterday. Some 300,000 doses have been ordered. In a description sent to television, radio and newspapers, police said that the missing man, Manfred Kimmel, was "extremely dangerous for all with whom he came into contact.”

They said that if he were not located quickly, his circle of contacts could spread “beyond calculation.” Authorities have traced the movements of Mr Hodcay back to his arrival on March 13 by train from Kosovo province in the Jugoslav republic of Serbia—where smallpox which broke out there early this month has killed seven people. Serbia is the biggest of Jugoslavia's six republics and three of the deaths have occurred in its capital, Belgrade. Police said Manfred Kimmel suffered from brain damage and his behaviour was highly unpredictable. They feared that because of his

mental condition he might, seek to hide from authorities after hearing about the smallpox outbreak. Mr Kimmel was in contact with Mr Hodcay for 10 days while living in a communal dwelling with four other foreign workers, all of whom have been located and placed in isolation. Mr Kimmel drove |

i|Off from the dwelling on Mon- > day evening and has not been ■ seen since. All 110 patients and 40 : doctors and nurses of the i hospital where Mr Hodcay's I case was diagnosed on Mon- ■ day night were among many i of his contacts under quaran--1 tine as well as 11 of his colleagues at a building firm.