TYPHOID IN SUVA

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 119, 23 May 1925, Page 13

TYPHOID IN SUVA

DETAILS OF OUTBREAK.

Fuller details of the outbreak of disease in Suva, the capital of Fiji, are contained in correspondence received from the Bey. A. W. M'Millan, representative of the National Council of the Young Men's Christian Associations in New Zealand and India to the Indians in Fiji. It would appear that typhoid became prevalent in the firat week of April, but did not attract much attention until three weeks later, when it assumed alarming proportions, To make matterß worse there was at the same time an outbreak of a form of influenza, or dengu*, and some of the cases were found to be puzzling. On the 29th April, eighty-five cases of typhoid were taken to the Suva Hospital. Of the three hundred scholars in the Methodist School, one hundred were stricken with the disease. In the Girls' Grammar School with a roll of 130, 47 giris were under treatment, besides 16 of the 00 boys of the Boys' Grammar School. One doctor alone was treating five hundred cases Up to the end of April there had not been much mortality, but all possible precautions were being taken. Mr. M'Millan offered his services to the Health authorities, and took up duty in the. Toorak auxiliary hospital (the Methodist Schoolroom), where the nursing staff was most sorely taxed in attending to the Indian patients. As to the origin of; the epidemic no official announcement has been made, but it is romarkable that the visitation has scarcely nffected the Fijian population, the Europeans and Indians being the principal uafferers. Writing on:lhe 7th May, Mr. M'Millan reported that the epidemic was still serious, there being in the main hospital alone 150 oases, of whom 90 were Europeans. In the Toorak auxiliary hospital wero forty-one Indians, ;md (he number was then increasing. "Referring to his own experience, he stated that for one week he had obtained only four hours rest each day, being on duty throughout the night with a staff of'one -trainee! nurse, two illiterate Indian women, and six Indian young men, mostly Kover Scouts, who were working magnificently being cheerful, willing, tireless, and patient. During the day the staff comprised a. European sister., two Methodist lady .missionaries (one a nurse), and two Fijian nurses, and the headmaster of the Methodist Indian School.

._ A Press cable message received,on 19th instant contained the gratifying advice that tho chief medical officer considered that the typhoid epidemic was definitely waning. The total deaths reported are": Europeans 10, Indians 10, and Fijians 1.