THE SMALLPOX OUTBREAK

Evening Star, Issue 11895, 25 May 1903, Page 4

THE SMALLPOX OUTBREAK

[Special to the Star.] LYTTELTON, May 25. A resident is ill, bis symptoms indicating smallpox. He lias been ordered to the hospital. He did not work on board the Gracchus, and his residence is not near the wharf. Dr Valentine, Assistant Chief Health Officer, arrived from Christchurch on Saturday night. His visit here is partly due to the report sent him by Dr Ogston of slight illness in a lady who landed here from the Gracchus, whom he saw yesterday, and ordered that the precautions now being observed should be stringently enforced. It was in part to see what preparations were being made to provide for an outbreak of smallpox, should such occur, with which object he is having a consultation with the Mayor of Dunedin. He also desires to learn exactly what is bing done with cargo taken from the Gracchus. Between fifty and sixty persons who had been associated in one way or another with the Gracchus were examined at the Health Office yesterday, and a large number to-day. These were all found to be in perfect health, and successful marks of the revaccination to which they had been submitted were found in all but four, two of whom were again vaccinated, the other two having excellent cicatrices of their former tion. Thus far, then, it would appear that persons who had handled cargo or had been on board the Gracchus have escaped contagion, and as the usual period of incubation for smallpox (fourteen days) has nearly elapsed, it is to be hoped that it will not break out here. But all who have in any way been exposed, even secondarily, to infection should at once report themselves to the Health Office. -