"UNDOUBTEDLY SMALLPOX."

Waikato Argus, Volume XXXV, Issue 5535, 17 February 1914, Page 2

"UNDOUBTEDLY SMALLPOX."

The Australasian Medical Congress has emphatically declared that the recent outbreak in New Zealand and Australia was “undoubtedly smallpox.'’' Such a declaration by an assemblage of expert medical men must be accepted- by laymen without question. The seriousness of the position must now be recognised, and every precaution taken against the recrudescence of the disease in a more virulent form, which we fear is almost a certainty with the advent of colder weather. Last year the outbreak was totally unexpected; therefore the arrangements to combat it were necessarily crude and expensive, though we believe the authorities, despite the blame heaped ypon them, did all possible in the unfortunate circumstances. This year they will have no excuse if they have not, organised a thorough plan of campaign to meet ah emergency whictfcthe experiences of other countries show is more than a probability. Medical science has demonstrated beyond cavil that vaccination is the best prevenient, and every unvaccinated person in a community is a menace to the health and life of others besides his own. Very few Maoris remain unvaccinated in the North, so that they will be jwell protected, but Europeans' have not taken this precaution generally, though it has been the experience elsewhere that when the disease has reappeared after having been prevalent among natives it has attacked the European population. Under modern sanitary conditions smallpox cannot become the scourge it has proved in past centuries; but it is a loathsome disease even in its mildest form, and it behoves the individual to cooperate with the authorities to secure its absolute eradication.