THE MENINGITIS CASES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2833, 26 July 1916, Page 8

THE MENINGITIS CASES

NO NEED FOR ALARM. Some reference to cerebro-spinal meningitis in the camps was made in the House of Representatives yesterday. Dr. Thacker asked the Minister of- Defence whether he could give an' assurance to the House that there was no possibility of an outbreak of meningitis at the camps such as had occurred last winter.

I The Hon. ,T. -Mien said that so far as human judgment could foretell, there ■was no likelihood of a recurrence of the epidemic of last year. There had Been a case at Trentham. and the case presented some remarkable features. Thero had not been a case at Trentham previously for eight mouths. The man had hud influenza, and had been discharged from hospital absolutely well. He came back in the course of a few days with a temperature of 103. and in a few hours meninsitis'developod. Unfortunately the patient died. But within ten minutes of the time that meningitis developed in this case all the men who had been in contact with the patient in the hut were isolated. The man had been in camp only three weeks, and the inoculation period for the disease was up to 100 days, ft was quite possible, although the Defence authorities did not contend that this was so, that the man brought the disoa*" into camp with him. In Featherston ' : " had been two, cases hanging on f 'me few days ,or weeks. One of the i '.'•• unfortunately died on the same rlny a-* the man at Trentham succumbed. He (Mr. Allen) had novsonallv inquired whether the medical officers had everything they needed to deal with such eases a= might occur, and ho had been informed that they had ever.vthinsr they needed. Ho thought the public could be fully assured that evorvthing that human beings could do was being done to prevent a serious outbreak of meningitis in camp.