The Star. SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1924. DISEASE CARRIERS AND MOSQUITOES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17246, 12 January 1924, Page 8

The Star. SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1924. DISEASE CARRIERS AND MOSQUITOES.

Happilj- New Zealand's geographical isolation gives a certain degree of protection against the introduction of many epidemic diseases, and an instance of this fact is to be found in connection with the case of small-pox which occurred on the liner Sussex, now at Wellington. The actual patient was disembarked at Thursday Island on December 30, and the absence of any suspicious sickness on the vessel since that date gives ground for the reassuring statement of the Health Department that the danger appears to have been averted. In the circumstances, therefore, there is no cause for alarm, especially as the vessel has been ordered into quarantine, and will remain there until the Minister of Health is fully satisfied that the danger is past. But the fight against disease calls for constant vigilance, and at a time when the public conscience is being awakened to the dangers that are abroad, and particularly in regard to the spread of consumption and other diseases through infected milk, it may be well to mention a disease carrier that is slowly but surely getting a hold in New r Zealand. AVe refer to the mosquito. It is only in the present season in Christchurch that the mosquito has become a very marked nuisance, and this may be attributed to the very wet winter, which left many pools of stagnant water, in which the mosquito breeds. But in other parts of New Zealand, and particularly Auckland, the pest is almost as marked as it is in Australia, where very grave fears are being entertained as to the possible spread of malaria and yellow fever by this agency. It has been pointed out that the appearance of rinderpest in Australia is a sharp reminder that the “ island continent,” as it is called, cannot presume too much on long immunity from overseas disease. The appearance of cattle tick in parts of the North Island, and of serious foot and mouth disease in Britain is another reminder that it pays to take the most stringent precautions. Mosquitoes are easily destroyed by emptying pools or tins of water, or covering them with a film of kerosene. It was this great discovery at Panama, the home of yellow fever, that made the construction of the canal possible. Isolated efforts to kill the mosquito may be quite effective in certain localities. For instance, Dr Blackmore organised a drive recently around the sanatoria on the hills, and a surprisingly large number of breeding grounds were rendered harmless. But the work ought to be taken in hand on a large scale, and incidentally an attack ought to be made on the extensive breeding grounds on the margin of Lake Ellesmere, where the air is sometimes thick with mosquitoes. The Health Department might very well take the matter up, and issue a bulletin for the assistance of country people in particular. But the whole problem ought to be taken up nationally. At present the mosquito is only a very mild pest, not so bad as the sand-fly, but when his, or rather her, danger as a disease carrier is realised, no time ought to be lost in a campaign of extermination.