DIPHTHERIA.

Opunake Times, Volume II, Issue 65, 15 February 1895, Page 2

DIPHTHERIA.

■ — —♦- —— The Daily News reports that a case of malignant diphtheria had been received at the local hospital. The patient is a boy nine years of age from Elthain. He was first sent to the Hawera Hospital, but there being no fever ward in that institution in which the case could have been isolated, he was sent on to New Plymouth. Diphtheria is a terrible scourge, and for several years back has been a constant visitor to most of the towns along this coast. It would be thought with a fiue open country, swept by continual sea breezes, that such diseases would not be prevalent, but the fact remains that year by year we have them with us. We must then look for local causes, and we liud that there is a total disregard for sanitary precautions in almost every small town on the coast. Rubbish of all descriptions is allowed to accumulate in the back yards, which, when wet with rain, becomes perfectly pestiferous. All sorts of slops are emptied into open drains and the sun evaporates the water, leaving a sediment which creates a stench and breeds poison germs by the myriad. The result is that in perfectly open town districts some of the most virulent diseases take hold and play havoc with the juvenile members of the population, whilst parents and others wonder who brought the disease into the town. The real cause, however, is to bo found, in many cases, in their own or their neighbors' back yards, open drains, or cess pits. In the summer time all rubbish should be gathered and burnt and reasonable precautions taken in the disposal of slops, when we feel assured a very marked decrease would be soon observed in epidemic and iufectious diseases.