FOR DIPHTHERIA CASES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3117, 22 June 1917, Page 3

FOR DIPHTHERIA CASES

SPECIAL "WARD TO BE ERECTED,

At yesterday's meeting of the. Wellington lio.-.piuu a.'id Charitable Aid JJouwl tlio chairman (Air. it. Dakiwtn,) reported that though, the ncgoliaus to the transfer in ;i certain ten-awe-block of laud from Iho Mental Hospitals ile'iarl'inent to the hoard iiad not yet been completed, stops 'had been Uikeu to expedite matters in, connection with tile erection of a new ward for diphtheria faces. .Ore. Valmtiiio ami Barclay, with the chairman, had visited tho block and selected a site. The architects, JleNtrs. Cric'hton and M'iiay, had been allied to prepare a rough plan, and it was placed beloro tho board, 'i'ho chairman asked that the action taken no lar be approved and for authority to proceed with, tho survey of the site aud tlio completion of the working plans. If that were done the work could go ahead, and the ward bo completed in timo for use at this time next year. Tho meeting guve full approval tx> tlio programme outlined by the chairman, and the work "will be proceeded villi forthwith.

The sketch plans show a broad Y-shap-ed one-storied structure, with a broad vcrnudu.li on the inner sides of the V". There are four iarge wards, and a few separate rooms, providing accommodation for 52 patients in. all. The site selected is adjacent to the Infectious Diseases Hospital, in a sepainto gully nearer the ■Wellington Hospital, and is comparatively isolated. The report on infectious diseases submitted by tlio Public Health Committee to tho board yesterday noted that for (lie month ended Juno 12 tho Hospital had handled Ul cases oC diphtheria, as compared with 25 for tho corresponding period of last year. There wero 35 cases in tho Hospital at present. Tho chairman (Air. Baldwin) remarked that whilst there was i<. marked increase in tho number of cases of diphtheria thero was u. corresponding decreaes in scarlet lover, thero having ken only ten cases in tho past month, a« compared with 70 lor tho ranio period of last year. .Hβ put forward tho theory that thero might bo a compensating relationship between tlio two diseases. The diphtheria, patients svro at present being housed in tho tfeddon shelters, whero they iivo being made as comjorl»blo as possible. jAlr. Baldwin ami that Dr. Watt had told him that I hero was no accounting for an outbreak of diphtheria. Dr. Barclay Pays t'ho s™°, >' in, "- , He informed a Dominion reporter yostcrdny i'liat lliero was no cloan-eu.t period of ■*crmi nation l;nown in conr.ocl.ion with the disease. It just ha.ppe.nec and when it ljrolio our. as it had in Wellington Ihw year, it usually took a year or two before it died out. Ho thoroughly approved of the building of the new diphtheria, ward, and thought Iho silo a good and convenient one.