THE EPIDEMIC.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1867, 29 September 1913, Page 8

THE EPIDEMIC.

THE FIGHT IN THE NORTH ' ABOUT 700 CASES. DR. RANGIHIROA'S EXPERIENCES. - After a two-months' fight with the smallpox epidemic in tlio North of Auckland, Dr. llangihiroa, member for Northern Maori District, has returned to Wellington. 'j " I went up there very sceptical," ho said to a Dominion* reporter in the course of a brief interview. " These people wore my constituents; I know them; I knew their villages j I knew tho tracks between the villages; and I thought I might be of some assistance. When'l arrived at Kaikohe I found 69 cases, and that seemed to me so serious that I decided to stay to help Dr. Cawkwell. We visited every village in the infected areas. Altogether thero must have been 700 oases in tho North of Auckland, and I saw about 600 of them. " We never at any time tried to treat tho disease except in the isolation hospital at Kaikohe. The cases in that district could be sent to tho hospital, but in tlio far-away- villages wo h?d to isolate patients in their own houses as best we could; and vaccinate tho other people. Our aim was to vaccinate all tho people we could. In order to do this wo called in the assistance of tho Maori Councils, and tho Marao Committees, who prepared for us complete census returns of tho villages. With this information it was possible to go from house to house, and bo reasonably suro of having vaccinated everybody. It would, of course, ha'ye been impossible in infected villages to call all tho population together for vaccination, because this -would havo probably spread tho disease. There waß nothing for it but the house-to-house visitation, and our work was made tho more difficult by frequent failures of the lymph. Now the disease is virtually stamped out in tho North. Thero may Btill do a few sporadic cases in the areas that havo been affected, but there should not be any more danger of the disease spreading into tho clean areas."

You have no doubt that the disease was smallprox ? Dr. Rangihiroa was asked.

" Not tho slightest. There were about 20 fatal cases in tho district, and no ono could have seen any of the fatal cases that I saw and gone on talking about chicken-pox. They were' cases of confluent smallpox oil the face and altogether the disease was most loathsome. The history of the smallpox epidemics of later years shows that it is usual for the disease to manifest itself at first in a mild form. Frequently the diagnosis has been mistaken, and the diseaso has been declared to be chicken-pox." You don't think tho disease is alastrimP

"I noticed something about alastrim in : the newspapers, but I have not looked into the alastrim question yet. I don't know how vaccination affects-the diseaso, but I should say that if our disease is alastrim, then alastrim is attenuated smallpox. • "The work has been interesting as furnishing valuable examples of the effect of vaccination. In a European community it might have been possible for some unvaccinated persons to escape infection, but the Maoris, living as they do several in a' room, could not escape infection unless protected by vaccination. In ono family of eighteen, all took tho diseaso except one, and he had been vaccinated in infancy. In a villacce with a population of 291 there were 120 people successfully vaccinated. Of these ten took the disease, and of the ten three had no spots, and none of tho others had more than four pustules. The percentage of cases in vaccinated people was therefore about 8.3. But of the 171 unvaccinated people 143 took the disease, making a percentage. of about 86 per cent. Several adults who had been vaccinated long ago—one was a.man of 50, who had been vaccinated in infancy—had tho constitutional symptoms of the disease, but did not develop spots. The Maoris were quick to realise the power of vaccination, and they were most anxious to bo vaccinated at once. ..."

Dr. Rangihiroa said that his, _ experience went v to show that the ideas about the aerial carrying of tjio. infection of smallpox were much exaggerated. It seemed necessary to pot fairly close to a patient to catch /in-* faction. Ho was of opinion that the epidemic was introduced by the Mormon elder of whom much has been heard. "It was unfortunate," he said, "that the man- happened to be a Mormon coming as a missionary to tho Maoris. Tf the man had been a commercial traveller somo Europeans would have caught the diseaso, and, as they would have been near to medical aid l , the diseaso would have been diagnosed sooner, and stamped out quickly. But ho went away among tho Maoris, and the diseaso had spread before anything was known about it."