DEADLY GERM

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20465, 9 July 1936, Page 14

DEADLY GERM

VICTORY FOR SCIENCE A drama of life and death enacted within the red-brick walls of the Masterton Hospital was described at last week's meeting of the Wairarapa Hospital Board when the medical superintendent, Dr. Archer Hosking, told of a recent successful fight by the medical and nursing staff against the dreaded disease of anthrax. Dr. Hosking said it was the first case of anthrax that had ever been reported in the Wairarapa. The patient a Martinborough man, became infected in the face by foreign matter in an imported shaving brush. In the past. Dr. Hosking observed, anthrax patients had seldom recovered, but a new and potent serum was now available, and by the use of this, supplies of which were rushed from Wellington, it had been possible to save the mans Ilfs. The anthrax germ which had entered through a tiny scratch on the man’s face, had been recovered from the wound, and pathological examination had proved without doubt that it was a definite case of anthrax. When he first became infected, she patient suspected that the shaving brush might be the source of infection and, unfortunately, he burnt the brush The brand and description of the par ticular type of brush, however, were well established. Mr Hosking added that he was happy to say that the patient was now convalescent.