SMALLPOX.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 77, 2 April 1910, Page 5

SMALLPOX.

DEATH OF ONE OF THE PATIENTS. By Telegraph. — Press Association.— Copyright. MELBOURNE, Ist April. Walker, a smallpox patient, is dead. A child aged two years, in the thirdclass of the Otway, has developed the disease. A REPORT. (Received April 2, 10.20 a.m.) PERTH. This Day. It is reported that the suspiciousOtway case is not one of smallpox. OTWAY AT. SYDNEY. TWO OTHER SUSPECTED CASES. (Received April 2, 11.15 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. The Otway has arrived, A second-class passenger and an engineer developed what is suspected to be 6mallpox on the voyage from Melbourne. They have been sent ashore and isolated. The first-class passengers have been landed in quarantine; the others will follow to-day. The Australian ouaiantine regulations provide that, in the case of smallpox, the period of quarantine shall be twentyone days. This meaii3 that tho boat will bo in quarantine at Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. Tho passengers landing at Melbourne would stil! have to be detained fifteen days after landing, assuming that the authorities discover no further cases of disease on the vessel's arrival at Adelaide. There is a provision that persons wrjo have been vaccinated, as described, under observation or to the satisfaction, of the quarantine officers, may be released under surveillance. These provisions are not, however, mandatory upon the quarantine officers, but are to be .exercised within their discretipu. Unless further outbreaks occurred, it is unlikely that the full' period will be insisted oh. It appears (says the Sydjiey Morning ,Herald) that tho boy who was found to •hay« smallpox on the R.M.S. Otway, at Fremantle, wa3 net a passenger from England, but boarded the ve/sgel at Co4onibo with bis mother. Referring to the matter, Dr. "Norris, Federal Directqr of Quarantine, said: "bmjillpox is ( always present to a greater or lesser extant in different parts of India aud GeyJon,. and it would be difficult to say where .the lad got infected 'without a complete history of h» movements.' 1 ' Speaking with reference to safeguards against infection, Dr. Nopris strongly advocated vaccination. "Any unvaccinated person going into any of the In- • dian ports may expose himself or herself to the risk of infection," said the director. "Persons .who ht»ve been vaccinated 'in infancy, and revaccinatej during 'adirit life, may regard themselves as reasonabiy protected. The efficacy of vaccination was exemplified in an ou£break of smallpox in Ossett, near Wakefield, England, in 1907. In a State school 152* chiWren were exposed to infection from » child who suffered from smallpox. Seventy-five h*d been vaccinated, and 77 had not. Of the 75 vaccinated children i 70 escaped infection ; but of the 77 unvaccinated children only 30 escaped." The case on board the Otway was discovered on 14th March, and the boy and his mother were immediately isolated. The period of quarantine for the passengers and crew, namely twenty-one days, dates from last presumable time of possible contact with the poison affected. If the quarantine authorities are satisfied wljen fuller details we received that> the patient was completely isolated on 14th alarch the quarantine period for tho passengers and crew may expire on 4th April, or aboyt a weeic after the vessel's arrival In M^lboprne. If the officials are not satisfied the quarantine period may la&t a week longer.