MEDICAL EXAMINATION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20493, 1 March 1941, Page 4

MEDICAL EXAMINATION

CLIPPER PASSENGERS PLANE’S CALL AT NOUMEA (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. Owing to the outbreak of bubonic plague in New Caledonia, a very thorough medical examination of the passengers and crew of Pan-American Airways Honolulu Clipper, was carried out when she arrived at Auckland this afternoon. Dr. Smith, medical officer of health,, co-operated with the port health officer, Dr. Watson, in carrying out an examination. The interior of the flyingboat and luggage and mails were also examined in view of the very remote possibility that rats or insects might be present. After the passengers and crew had landed, Dr. Smith addressed them in the lounge of the air base building, explaining that Noumea was now classed as an infected port and that any passengers remaining in New Zealand longer than five days must report to the medical officer of health on the sixth day , which marked the end of the incubation period for bubonic plague. Passengers' Obligations Any person who became ill in the interim must call / in a doctor and notify the nearest medical officer of health. The passengers stated later that neither they nor members of the Clipper’s crew were allowed to land at Noumea, but spent their time in port, two nights and a day, aboard Pan-American Airways steam yacht Southern Seas. Passengers from Noumea were brought out in a tender. According to information available at Noumea "before the Clipper left, six deaths from plague had occurred, mostly among native children, and all in small villages, the nearest about 60 miles from Noumea. It was understood that only natives had been attacked and that the authorities were taking measures to deal with the outbreak. . 1