10 N.Z. soldiers get malaria

Press, 12 July 1980, Page 6

10 N.Z. soldiers get malaria

PA Palmerston North Ten New Zealand Army engineers have been treated for malaria after a recent two-week deployment in the Solomon Islands. It is the worst outbreak of the tropical, febrile disease which the Army has experienced in the last few years. The engineers — including Regular Force and Territorials _ fell ill almost a month after returning to New Zealand. After diagnosis, they were immediately put in hospital. Treatment has now been completed and the. men have been dis? charged. The sappers caught the disease after working on water-supply and bridgebuilding tasks in the southern part of Guadalcanal, a low-lying coastal belt which is one of the worst-affected malaria areas in the Solomons. ' They were part of a 60man deployment which had been on ‘the island from April 28 to May 14. The tasks were part of a bilater-al-aid project being carried

out in the Solomons by the Two other deployments have since been to the Solomons, and the fourth and final group is now in the area. , , • Colonel Brian McMahon, director Of the Royal New Zealand Army Medical Corps, said yesterday that the cases indicated a malaria strain in that area which was resistant to the preventative drugs that had been used. ■ He said there were two strains on Guadalcanal — falciparum (malignant tertian malaria) and vivax (benign. tertian malaria). The New Zealanders were confirmed vivax A prophylactic and suppressive agent taken by the engineers to guard against the disease had been a course of aoprim tablets. A tablet is taken one week before entering a malarial area, continued weekly on the same day, and maintained for a month after leaving the district. Colonel McMahon said that initial reports indicated that the men, who would eventually be interviewed by medical people, had taken ■ the complete course.