THE EPIDEMIC IN PAHIATUA
Sir,—The epidemic has been very severe in our town, and in proportion to population the mortality great. The local doctors deserve the heartiest thanks ot the community for the manner in which they grappled with the malady; they did not spare themselves. Many ot our' womenfolk, too, have earned our gratitude for nursing tho sufferers and supplying ample foodstuffs and delicacies Their help in regard' to tho latter is all the more praiseworthy when it is remembered that a great number of the contributors of food are wives of the struggling working classes with big families to maintain; and while the moneyed man got especial prominence for his donation, people in poor circumstances who gave liberally of food got no acknowledgment whatever. . ~„. ... . ~ There were certain difficulties in the way of promptly combating the epidemic. A lack of concentration of patients and staff, for instance. If theie had been centralisation it would have saved a lot of needless running about and waste of energy. When the public hospital became full pi patients, and all the available space at the institution fully absorbed, a temporary ward should have immediately been erected, the same as is reported to have been done in several other towns in a very short time, instead of that', a building, fully a mile awav, was utilised as an emergency hospital. A number of bad cases succumbed, and eventually it was announced that the building was unsuitable. A move was then made to another building, a much bi»"cr place, but it could not be called a very comfortable one. Here there was some bother over the catering for tie unhappy sufferers, and but for a hotelkeeper and his wife kindly coming to the rescue the trouble might have been a great deal worse. Concentration, as, followed out in other places, would probably have been more effective. Several of our citizens gave valuable aid during the epidemic-ram, etc. suFFBiiEE _ Pahintua, December 12, 1918.
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Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 69, 16 December 1918, Page 6
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327THE EPIDEMIC IN PAHIATUA Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 69, 16 December 1918, Page 6
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