OUTBREAK OF TYPHOID

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 780, 1 April 1910, Page 6

OUTBREAK OF TYPHOID

NO OCCASION FOR ALARM. ORIGIN OF THE DISEASE UNKNOWN. Owing to several cases of typhoid having occurred in the city and suburbs during the past week or two unnecessary, uneasiness seems to have been felt in some quarters in regard to the matter. Referring to tho outbreak, the "Otago Daily Times" on Wednesday published the following paragraph, forwarded by its local correspondent r"Wellington is evidently paying the penalty for the.long dry summer and the almost total absence of those searching winds for which the port is noted. A number of cases of typhoid fever have been reported during the last week. The figures are not alarming, but indicato a condition of things which.is not strictly normal. There are half a dozen cases in the hospital at the present time, but a great many more typhoid patients are being treated privately. Amongst them is Mr. W. Houghton, inspector of the National Bank. The weather' in, Wellington has been exceptionally warm, and for the first time in the history of the present generation mosquitoes have invaded the city. Whether the insect pest, that. is said to carry infection readily, has anything to do with the presence of typhoid in a city_ so dean, and sanitarily perfect as Wellington cannot be said, but the fact remains that the mild outbreak of fever has broken out simultaneously with the coming of the mosquito during the month of March." Upon making inquiries at the Public Health Department yesterday a Dominion reporter was informed that there was ncthing unprecedented in connection with the outbroik. Altogether -inly 13 cases had been notified during the past .three months—which was not excessive for a city-of the size of Wellington. Typhoid was distinctly an autumnal disease; and therefore cases were not unexpected at this time of the year. It was further explained that the number of cases during the corresponding period of last year was exactly the same as for the past three months.. An interesting fact in cennection with the respective outbreaks was that whereas the cases early last year were fairly evenly spread over the period, most of the cases or. this occ>ision had occurred in the month of March. Ocr inf'rmnnt added that although mosquitoes had been associate! with the spreading of other diseases, the insects had not been definitely associated hitherto with the dissemination of typhcid. As regards tho present outbreak, the were spread over the whole of the district, and investigations were being made as to their origin. It was. also pointed out that it v-sry often happened that oases 'of typhoid occurred after heavy weather following upon a dry spell.