INFLUENZA SYMPTOMS

Hawera Star, Volume L, 25 February 1931, Page 4

INFLUENZA SYMPTOMS

FATALITIES IN COAL TOWN THREE VICTIMS SUCCUMB HUNDRED BELIEVED AFFECTED. lijj TeJegrapn —Prtfo /»«»ociatu>u.j AUCKLAND, Feb. 24. Three deaths ha\ r e occurred and at least 100 people, mostly children, are affected as the result of an outbreak or what is (relieved to be gastric innuenza in the mining town of I'ukeTniro. The victims are;

Mr. A. J. Edwards, butcher, gaed ■±6, Avho died in the Waikato Hospital at Hamilton. A boy named Hillier, aged about five years. A girl named Tollau, aged about four years. The tvvo last-named died at Pukemiro.

The outbreak is causing considerable anxiety at Pukemiro. The symptoms are peculiar and leave the affected persons practically helpless. The victims are mostly the children of miners employed in the locality. Dr. Patterson unedical officer to the .Pukemiro Medical Association) stated to-night that it was not authoritatively certain that the malady Avas gastric influenza. It has been suggested that the disease has been conveyed through milk, and it is understood that this theory is being investigated by the Health Department. Dr. J. Boyd, medical officer of health for South Auckland, said an inspector had been sent to Pukemiro to investigate the outbreak. His "opinion had not yet been received. It is reported that all the children affected attended a picnic on Sunday, and it lias been suggested that ptomaine poisoning may lie the cause of the widespread illness.