FATAL DISEASE.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20171, 25 February 1931, Page 10

FATAL DISEASE.

three persons dead AT PUKEMIRO. •' 100 OTHERS AFFECTED. OUTBREAK BELIEVED TO BE GASTRIC INFLUENZA. (rsssa association t^^oeait.) AUCKLAND, February 24. Three deaths have occurred, and at least 100 people (mostly children) are affected, as a result of an outbreak of what is believed to be gastric influenza in the mining town of pukemiro. The victims are Mr A. J. Edwards, butcher, aged *5, who died in the Waikato Hospital at Hamilton; a boy named Hillier, aged about five years, and a girl named Tollan, aged about four years. The two last-named died at Pukemiro. , The outbreak is causing considerable anxiety at Pukemiro. The symptoms are peculiar, and leave the affected persons practically helpless. The victims are mostly the children of the miners employed in tho locality. Dr. Patterson, medical officer to the Puketairo Medical Association, stated to-night that it was not authoritatively certain that the malady was gastric influenza. It has been suggested that the disease has been conveyed through milk, and it is understood that the theory is being investigated by the Health Department. Dr. J; Boyd, Medical Officer of Health for South Auckland, said an inspector had been sent to Pukemiro to investigate the outbreak. ; His opinion had not yet been received. \ It is reported that oil the children affected attended a picnio on Sunday, and it Has been suggested that ptomaine poisoning may be the cause of wide-spread illness.