TRENTHAM CAMP

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9092, 10 July 1915, Page 7

TRENTHAM CAMP

ANOTHER EPIDEMIC ALARMING REPORTS IN CIRCULATION IS IT DENGUE FEVER P Tho sudden decision of tho Government to move tho troops from Trenthani camp was followed by a report that the medical authorities had discovered an additional epidemic of a serious kind to bo spreading among r.ho troops. Tho report was given a measure of confirmation by the enforcement of quarantine regulations at the camp yesterday, visitors having business to attend to being refused admission. while workmen engaged at tho camp were not permitted to leave. The voice of rumour was busy with the dread word typhoid during tho early part of tho day, but a “New Zealand Times’’ reporter, who made inquiries on tho subject, gathered that vho trouble probably was denguo fever. Some of tho New Zealand troops in tlamoa suffered from this complaint, and there is reason to believe that the infection found its way back to New Zealand. Dengue fever is a tropical disease, duo to a specific organism. It is not dangerous in itself, but it produces slow fever of a debilitating kind, and renders the victim particularly, i.usceptiblo to bronchial troubles and pneumonia. Tho Minister for Public Health (the Eon. 11. H. Rhodes) stated last evening that the medical staff was still investigating with the object of determining the nuti.ro of the epidemic at ttie cutup. The medical branch of the Defence Department had secured the services of the Govornmnt Bacteriologist, and of Dr Champtaloup, Professor of Public Health at tho Otago Medical School and Public Bacteriologist at ■Dunedin. These experts-would ascertain, if possible, just what tho trouble was, and would advise the Government as to the steps that should be taken. The Minister added that he could not say if the epidemic was dengue fever. That was a matter for the experts to decide. The authorities, in any case, werq taking all possible precautions, and until the investigation had been completed it had been thought desirable to quarantine the camp. The type of influenza prevailing among the troops was very severe, in any case, and the measles outbreak also was malignant. In answer to a further question, the Minister stated that the trouble, whatever it might be, did not mean that the troops would not bo moved to their new quarters or that there would he delay in tho dispatch of the various drafts for tho front. The men who had been quarantined would be allowed to leave their present quarters as soon as they were convalescent and the doctors wore satisfied that thqre was no danger of Infection being conveyed.“There have been no cases of typhoid and no cases of diphtheria,” said the Minister in conclusion. “No deaths have been reported to-day.”