CHICKEN POX OUTBREAK.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 583, 9 July 1913, Page 7

CHICKEN POX OUTBREAK.

A SERIOUS EPIDEMIC. PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES. The outbreak among tha Maoris of North Auckland and other localities, which has hern diagnosed as chicken pox ia spreading rapidly, and in view of the developments in Sydney, where a mild outbreak of email pox is raging, fears are entertained that the epidemic is both places ha* a common source. The disease has spread extensively in North Auckland, and the patients now number Beveral hundreds. Outbreaks are also reported at AucKland, Mangere and Cambridge, the patients in each instance being Maoris. HEALTH OFFICERS INCREASED. The Public Health Department is taking active steps to combat the outbreak and nedical men in various districts have been appointed to attend to the matter. At Te Kuiti Dr Zobel has be°n appointed to act for the department, and from the undermentioned tele-

gram which the doctor [received yesterday, it will be seen that nothing is being left undone to check the spread of the disease. In appointing Dr Zobel the district health officer telegraphed as follows: "Please act on behalf of the department. Visit the native settlements and vaccinate all the natives. Any who refuse are to be forbidden to travel by boat, or coach, or to enter public places All children attending school [are to be vaccinated. Order sanitary works in any of the settlements Supplies of lymph will be forwarded to you. Please report a3 to evidences of mild chicken pox, or the mote serious form in the district both as to Europtans and natives." Up to the present there have been no cases reported in this district. Interviewed by the Chronicle representative, Dr Zobel said from the information available it seemed aa though there was a connection between the I Sydney epidemic, which had been j proved to be small pox. and the outbreak at Auckland. The fact of two outbreaks occurring simultaneously in the places mentioned seemed to be something more than mere coincidence, and he was decidedly of opinion that precautionary measures were urgently necessary.

RESTRICTIONS ON MAORIS. TO PREVENT INFECTION. Auckland, This Day. Acting upon instructions from the Health Department, the Tramway Company notify that during the prevalence of the present epidemic amongst Maoris, natives will not be allowed to travel on tram cars unless they can produce a medical certicate that they have been successfully vaccinated, or that they are not liable to carry infection. The assistance of the police can be invoked if any difficulty is experienced in enforcing the order.