CASE OF SMALLPOX

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 104, 26 January 1935, Page 7

CASE OF SMALLPOX

Steward on Aorangi at Sydney PASSENGERS GO INTO QUARANTINE Ship to Sail on Thursday After Fumigation By Telegraph.—Press Assn.— Copyright (Received January 25, 8.70 p.m.) Sydney, January 25. Smallpox was definitely diagnosed today in a steward and the Aorangi’s passengers disembarked at / the quarantine station this afternoon. comprise 139 through passengers, 181 from New Zealand, and a crew of approximately 300. The ship will be fumigated. It is expected to berth at Darling Harbour tomorrow morning. The Union Company announces that the Aorangi’s sailing date next Thursday will be adhered to. Dr. Birmingham and Dr. Metcalfe are still on the vessel examining the vaccination history of all aboard. Those compelled to remain in quarantine for the full period will have complete facilities for reading, recreation and communication by telephone with friends in the metropolitan area. Seventy-six passengers, including -8 Indians, the latter of whom are returning by the Moldavia to their home country, will be released from quarantine to-morrow. The majority of the crew, all of w’hom have been vaccinated within recent years, will be released, and will rejoin the Aorangi after her fumigation on Sunday. It is expected that another group •of passengers will be freed five days hence, but the remainder, with a small percentage of the crew, will be detained for the full quarantine period. Upon the arrival of the Aorangi last night the doctors of the port health staff discovered a suspicions case of illness aboard and decided to remain on the ship overnight. The Aorangi, which was anchored in Watson’s Bay, moved to quarantine this morning. The doctors at first did not Indicate the nature of the illness nor whether the suspect was a passenger or member of the crew. The customary period of quarantine for smallpox is fourteen days, although persons who have been vaccinated at a sufficiently recent time before the outbreak may be released earlier As the ship was cleared by the medical authorities at Auckland, tiie symptoms of the disease could not have been in an advanced stage at that time. However, as the period of incubation is regarded as being about ten days, the infection must have been contracted before the Aorangi reached New Zealand. The mail bags have been unloaded to a Navigation Department’s launch for deliverj- to-day.