DIPHTHERIA OUTBREAK

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 72, Issue 6243, 17 June 1946, Page 4

DIPHTHERIA OUTBREAK

CASES INCREASE PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES “There is no disputing the fact that the number of cases of diphtheria in the Hamilton health district has increased,” said Dr J. F. Dawson, medical officer of health for the Hamilton district. “One aspect I should like to impress on parents is the importance of acting now in the matter' of having their children injected. It should be remembered that immunity does not develop for six to eight weeks after the last injection, so it is obvious that prompt action is a preventative. The immediate danger of infection is not avoided by having the injection; it is a precaution for the future,” he said. Dr Dawson added that if a child apepared to be off-colour, parents would be wdse to consult a doctor. Cases of diphtheria had increased recently, and the total since early in April was 107. Four of the victims, all of them children, had died, and there were at present about 50 cases being treated at the Waikato Hospital.

Dr Dawson said the incidence of the complaint was causing him and all medical men a good deal of concern. Children between the ages of six months and ten years would react satisfactorily to injection of the serum. All doctors in the district were co-operating with the Department of Health in seeking to control the trouble, and it was hoped to arrest it before reaching epidemic form. Lack of staff was commented on by Dr Dawson as a handicap. He was the only departmental medical officer in the whole of the Waikato and Northern King Country area. There were no school medical officers to assist him, but hospital doctors and those in private practice were cooperating to the full. To facilitate the treatment by serum, injections a temporary clinic had been established at the Y.M.C.A. premises in Bryce Street and another one was functioning at the Waikato Hospital, Dr Dawson concluded.

When questioned on the subject, Dr H. L. Gould, medical superintendent of the Waikato Hospital, said lack of accommodation at the hospital was a factor occasioning concern, particularly in the isolation section of the hospital, but the best possible under the circumstances was being done. It was, he added, essential to keep a few beds for urgent cases. There was no undue congestion in respect of beds in the major part of the hospital, and there had been occasions, apart from the present ,when all available beds were occupied.