Doctor Tells How Typhoid Fever Spread

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 4, 4 October 1950, Page 3

Doctor Tells How Typhoid Fever Spread

A kindly old Maori woman is believed to have been the unwitting cause of the death of three people from typhoid fever because of her fondness for one them —a baby boy. Her association with 12 cases of typhoid in a remote country area of the North Island is described by Dr T. C. Lonie, medical officer of health at Palmerston North, in the annual report of the Health Department. Toward the end of 1948, 16 adults and five children attended a party at a sheepstation homestead. Dr Lonie says that the Maori woman may well have handled the baby boy there and probably gave him some titbits of food. 'The child already ill, was nursed by his mother and handled by many guests. He contracted typhoid fever as did his sister and mother and several guests. When the 12 cases had been traced it was found that the Maori woman had been associated with them and earlier cases. She had been a carrier of the disease for 17 years. She was treated with massive doses of penicillin and sulphathiozole. Before her discharge from hospital she undertook conditions regarding cleanliness and cooking and handling food.