AH Schools In NI Closed Monday

Northern Advocate, 29 November 1947, Page 6

AH Schools In NI Closed Monday

INFANTILE PARALYS IS DEATH

WELLINGTON, Sat. (P.A.) .—All schools in the North Island, both primary and secondary, are being closed as from Monday as a precaution against infantile paralysis, announced the Director-General of Health (Dr T. R. Ritchie) today. University entrance and scholarship examinations will be held. No cases have yet been reported in Wellington. One death from infantile paralysis occurred at Auckland yesterday afternoon. The victim was a married man, aged 27. Thirteen positive cases of infantile paralysis and nine suspect cases are now reported in the Auckland district. Positive cases include one adult. The remainder are children, all under 10 years and the youngest nine months. A further appeal has been made for women to volunteer for hospital work owing to the acute shortage of staff. The occurrence of two cases of the disease in the Taranaki health district was reported yesterday.

The person who died at Auckland was a very bad case from the beginning, the respiratory muscles being paralysed, said the medical officer oi health (Dr L. S. Davis) yesterday. This type of poliomyelitis was fortunately rare and none of the other cases show’ed any signs of developing this particular form. Stating that the general position must be regarded as having become more serious, Dr Davis emphasised that parents must keep their children away from all crowded gatherings in the meantime. SUNDAY SCHOOLS ALSO Before the Ministerial statement announcing that all schools in the North Island were to close as from December 1, it was announced that all primary schools between Mercer in the south and Wellsford in the north are to be closed on Monday as a precaution against the spread of the disease. Sunday School will close as from tomorrow. An instruction to this effect was issued yesterday by the Director-Gen-eral of Health in Wellington (Dr T. R. Ritchie). Another decision made yesterday was that no children under the age of 12 were to enter picture theatres, racecourses or other places of public amusement ,or to attend public picnics until further notice. Ministerial approval was given to the invoking of Section 76 of the Health'Act to give the medical officer of health wide powers to prevent the spread of the disease. The first major step under this section was the closing of all kindergartens and day nurseries yesterday. Children who arrived at kindergartens yesterday were sent home by their teachers. DIFFICULTY OF CONTROL i Dr Davis pointed out that the diffi-1 culty of controlling an outbreak of in- j fantile. paralysis lay in the fact that it j was estimated that 98 per cent of the -j cases were of the abortive or mild type, and many of those could not even be definitely diagnosed. In many cases people could become carriers without even developing the disease.

Any child with a fever or any undiagnosed illness should be put to bed and kept at rest until seen by a doctor, he said. Dr Davis emphasised that people should avoid swimming in the Waitemata and Manukau harbour, stating that, as the poliomyelitis virus inhabited the bowel it was undesirable that people should swim in the harbours at present.as the water was definitely sewage polluted. RUTHLESS ACTION NEEDED The retiring chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board (Mr A. J. Moody), in a statement yesterday, suggested that secondary schools throughout the district should be closed. He commended-fhe Health Department authorities and the Minister of Health for the firm and decisive action taken. - It was with extreme sorrow that perhaps his last public statement as chairman oi the board should be made under the shadow of a possibly serious, epidemic, said Mr Moody. He did not wish to be an alarmist in any way, but the position appeared, to be serious, and no time should be losF in procrastination. Decisive and ruthless action should be taken to stamp out the outbreak. The children must be saved, even at the expense of considerable inconvenience and disruption to business.

He would go so far as to recommend the closing of picture theatres. An appeal to women to volunteer for hospital work was made by the super-intendent-in-chief of Auckland public hospitals (Mr H. Sehvyn Kenrick) yesterday. He said the outbreak of infantile paralysis had come at a singularly unfortunate time, as the shortage of nursing staff at the hospitals—always an acute problem—was even more serious at the end of ’the year. To eliminate the risk of carying infection to others, such part-time staff would not be employed in infectious wards but would be used to free others for the care of cases of infantile paralysis. TARANAKI CASES A message from New Plymouth states that two cases of infantile paralysis have been notified in the Taranaki health district. One occurred at Huiroa and the other at Waitara. One is a child of three years and the other is six. The medical officer of health (Dr E. W. Kinsey) said the cases did not constitute an epidemic. .; He had received the necessary authority empowering him to close schools and places of entertainment if considered advisable, but it was not necessary to take such action at present. As far as could be seen the two cases were not connected. No cases have been reported in the Whangarei district. TEACHERS TO REPORT The Minister of Education (Mr McCombs) said this morning that, although schools in the North Island will be closed, university entrance and university scholarship examinations will be held as arranged. Pupils taking these examinations will be well separated in examination rooms. v I He asked teachers to report to their schools at the usual times and await further instructions from their boards. There would be a certain amount of work for them to do in clearing up after the school year and preparing for the next. “Gatherings of children and young i persons, as in cinemas or Sunday schools, are not considered advisable,” | said the Northland medical officer of ! health (Dr J.. L. Newman) today.