QUARANTINE SYSTEM.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 218, 13 August 1940, Page 6

QUARANTINE SYSTEM.

BRITISH PLAN ADVOCATED. WELLINGTON, Aug. 13. The adoption by New Zealand of the British system of maritime quarantine is recommended by the Director-Gen-eral of Health (Dr M. 11. Watt) in a report containing proposals for improvements in the public health system of the Dominion. “Great Britain, of course, has long practised a system under which cases of quarantinable disease are removed to isolation hospitals under the control of the local government authorjty at the port of entry, and the closer and more dangerous contacts are kept in isolation for a period. Under this system the great majority of contacts are released under surveillance, their names and addresses being forwarded to the medical officer of health of the district to which they are proceeding, so that-he may keep them under as frequent observation as is deemed necessary. “In New Zealand the only practical risks we run are the inoroduction of (1) smallpox and (ii) rat plague. It is not necessary to maintain quarantine establishments to deal with these conditions, and it is therefore recommended that as our quarantine stations reach a stage where rebuilding must be contemplated we should discard them entirely and revert to the British system. Our distance constitutes our protection in the case of sea traffic from Great Britain and America, while in the case of sea traffic from the East, Australia, with its very efficient quarantine services, affords us practical immunity.”