DIPHTHERIA PREVALENT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2481, 16 September 1922, Page 2

DIPHTHERIA PREVALENT.

NUMBER OF GASES INCREASING. CARRIERS FOUND IN SCHOOLS. “A?, this disease is increasing in numbers, though fortunately, not in virulence all over New Zealand, 1 think some definite steps should he taken,** said Sir James Wilson, chairman of the Hospital Board at a meeting of that body on Thursday. He staled that recently the bacteriologist visited the Feilding school and swabbed the throats of 400 children .n order to ascertain il diphtheria was in evidence. The result was that 15 children were found lo he carriers of ihe complaint. It was a very serious matter. Diphtheria eases were always in the hospital by the dozen. The diphtheria wing was never empty. There were seven in at tlie moment, and there were a dozen the other day. These children at the Feilding school were not suffering from diphtheria, but they were carrying the disease. It was just a question of what should be done, but he thought the Board should ask that the same procedure be taken in Palmerston North at the schools whenever there was an outbreak.

Mr Hornblow thought the Department of Health should be requested to send a bacteriologist to all the schools in the district whenever and wherever there might be an outbreak. The motion was carried.