MENINGITIS MENACE

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17787, 12 August 1929, Page 11

MENINGITIS MENACE

FEARED IN HONOLULU. DEATH 3 AMONG SUGAR WORKERS. (From a Correspondent). HONOLULU, May 29. With sixty-three Filipino labourers en route from Manila to work on island sugar plantations dead of cere-bro-spinal meningitis either at sea or in Honolulu hospitals since the start of the year public health officials here are facing a problem of the first magnitude. Two phases arc involved—location of the source of infection and the development of preventive measures which will check the epidemic which has been sweeping ports all around the Pacific for more than five months.

The situation, in fact, has become so serious that Dr. F. E. Tortter, president of the Territorial Board of Health, has departed for Washington, where he will join in a conference of medical authorities •called, for the express purpose of combating the meningitis menace. First under consideration ie the source of infection, no doubt to be found in the Orient, Shipping from Manila to the United States by way of Hawaii touches at ports both In China and Japan. Epidemics of meningitis have recently occurred in Hongkong, Shanghai and Yokohama. A survey of conditions in the Philippines has revealed the existence of human germ carriers there, although the disease is not present in anything like a widely distributed form. An interesting sidelight is found in the fact that all Filipinos contracted for by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association undergo medical examination before sailing from Manila. It is a well known fact that meningitis has not been discovered on liners hound for Hawaii until after the ships have made their calls in the Orient. There no labourers are allowed ashore, but others from the land are permitted to come on board. At least three times since March 14 vessels have become hotbeds of meningitis, with as many as ten deaths occurring in the steerage quarters during the seven-day voyage, hence with resultant burials at sea. Not once has a first-class passenger been taken ill with the ailment.