SMALLPOX

Southland Times, Issue 19357, 24 September 1924, Page 5

SMALLPOX

OUTBREAKS IN BRITAIN AND AMERICA. NEW ZEALAND HEALTH AUTHORITIES TAKE PRECAUTIONS. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, September 23. A statement by the Director-General of Health says that on Friday last, the Ministry of Health in England announced that smallpox is spreading in England and Wales. It is prevalent in 91 districts, and the cases total 2750, compared with 1840 during the corresponding period of 1923. The type experienced so far in England has been on all fours with that of the New Zealand epidemic of 1914, which was confined to the North Island and affected principally the Maoris, causing 55 deaths (all Maoris). It recurred in Otago in 1920, again in a mild form. A recent outbreak reported from Pittsburg, United States of America, though checked by prompt measures, was severe, proving fatal to 20 per cent of those stricken.

Advised of these incidents, the New Zealand Department of Health has twice in the last three months warned Port health officers to be alert. Should smallpox, in a moderate or severe form, enter the Dominion or occur within it, its spread can be prevented only by the prompt segregation of the cases, and isolation and vaccination of contacts. The protection afforded by vaccination, and preferably re-vaccination at ten-year intervals, or by a previous attack of the disease itself, is still regarded as the only reliable safeguard. Should the disease assume epidemic form, the Minister of Health is empowered to declare an area in which all healthy persons shall be compulsorily vaccinated. There is no ocasion for alarm, but rush vaccination is objectionable, and as a preventive measure parents are advised to have their children vaccinated with care and precision by a medical practitioner acquainted with their medical history, or if in poor circumstances, at the nearest public hospital, after careful examination of each child.