PLAGUE SCARES.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 436, 7 June 1902, Page 2

PLAGUE SCARES.

THE LITTLE BOY. SUSPICIOUS CASE REMOVED FROM STEAMER. By Telegraph —Press Association Christchurch, last night. The name of the little boy at Lyttelton whose case was considered suspicious last night is Minn. DrSytues, District Health Officer, states that there is very little reason to suppose that the case is one of plague. Last week, the boy fell upon a broken teacup and cut his hand open. The sore caused by the accident is supposed to have been the medium by which his illness, whether plague or bloodpoisoning, was contracted. It was reported to day that the boy was very much better. It is not intended at present to remove him from his home, nor has the house been isolated. A suspicious case occurred on the Monowai to-day. A passenger to Sydney from a southern port, a man named Moore, was ill, and the Lyttelton Health Officer being summoned he regarded the case as suspicious, and summoned Dr Symes, District Health Officer, who had the man removed from the ship, brought through to Christchurch by special train this evening, and then taken to the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Bottle Lake. It is rumored at Lyttelton that it is not a case of plague, but of diphtheria, but nothing definite can be learned till Dr Symes returns from the Hospital.

THE DOCTOR’S REPORT. CASE PRESENTS ALL FEATURES OF PLAGUE. By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, last night. Dr. Symes states that the Monowai ease presents all the features of plague. The patient is Richard Moore, 19 years of age. He joined the Monowai at Melbourne as a steerage passenger for Dunedin, but booked on thence to "Wellington. -On the way up the coast he was taken very ill. The ship’s doctor thought the case to be diphtheria. On arrival at Lyttelton Dr. Upham, the local health officer, visited the patient, and reported the case to Dr. Symes, District Health Officer, who ordered the removal of the patient to the hospital at Bottle Lake. The cabin Moore occupied was fumigated and disinfected. Those occupying the cabin with the patient have gone on with the vessel, but will be kept under supervision. Tho boy McMinn is doing well to-night. Dr. Symes is remaining at Lyttelton tonight. Fie will meet Dr. Mason tomorrow morning, when it will be decided whether the case should he isolated or not.