OUTBREAK OF CHICKENPOX.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 53, 8 July 1913, Page 5

OUTBREAK OF CHICKENPOX.

SIX HUNDRED NATIVES SUFFERING.

[Per Press Association.] Whangarei, July 7. There are three cases of chickenpox in the hospital. The patients are Maoris, and the cases are of a mild character, milder thaif the ones of some weeks ago. Dr. Fraser Hurst, medical superintendent of the local

hospital, stated to-day that a circular had been addressed to him by the health officer at Auckland asking for any conclusions he might have come to respecting vaccination as a preventive of chicken-pox, but he* was afraid that such evidence as he had seen was entirely negative. Certainly Maoris had not been vacinatecd, but neither had the majority of the white people, with whom the patients had been in contact. The disease the Maoris were suffering from was really slight chicken-pox, plus impetigo, a complaint of which the characteristic feature is an ugly rash, to which the Maoris are very susceptible.

A report from Takaaiwai states that there are nine cases in the native settlement there.

AN INFECTIOUS DISEASE

Wellington, July 7

The Gazette issued to-day contains a notification by the Minister of Public Health, declaring that the disease called or known as chicken-pox is an infectious disease within the meaning of the Public Health Act.

THE NATIVE OUTBREAK. Auckland, July 7. It is reported that about six hundred natives are suffering from chicken pox in the north. Precautions are being taken in accordance with the Department’s regulations.