AUCKLAND WOMAN’S DEATH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 20 October 1937, Page 7

AUCKLAND WOMAN’S DEATH

AI’I’AIIENTI.V DUE TO PSITTACOSIS j BUDGERIGAR FANCIERS WARNED I IR.v Telegraph Press Assoeialioiil AUCKLAND. I!)th October. ! Symptoms discernible in a fatal case jof pneumonia which led to a strong suspicion that death was due to psittacosis or parrot s disease prompted a warning being issued to budgerigar fanciers by Dr. J. P. Hastings at a meeting of the Auckland Hospital Board. He said, in view of the fact that this was the first probable ease to be reported in the Dominion, and on account of the extreme mortality of the disease, ii was a matter of national importance. “It would appear that a fatal case of this new disease has occurred at Auckland.” Dr. Hastings stated. "I attended the patient, who was a woman, and in my opinion she was suffering from toxic pneumonia acquired from a budgerigar. Psittacosis attacks the parrot family, of which budgerigars arc members, and there have been a number of cases iri which they have communicated the disease lo man in Great Britain and other countries.” The vast importance of the matter would be seen when it was realised that 30 to 40 of every 100 cases proved fatal and he mentioned the facts in order that the public and medical practitioners might be on their guard. Many proven cases of disease being transmitted from budgerigars to humans were known in England and California, and in the United States it was illegal to move birds from one state to another without a certificate of health issued by an authorised veterinary surgeon.

In the fatal Auckland case, Dr. Hastings explained, the patient resisted all forms of treatment and the whole clinical picture illustrated that death was almost certainly due to psittacosis. As budgerigars were bred by the patient’s family, the inference was that the disease had been transmitted from them. He mentioned that officials of the Health Department and Dr. Gilmour, pathologist at Auckland Hospital, were conducting investigations. Dr. Hastings added that the symptoms in birds that were affected were loss of appetite drowsiness, severe diarrhoea, drooping of wings and general debility. In man the most usual symptoms were those of pneumonia, which was exceptionally toxic.