THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1947. WISE PRECAUTIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26638, 8 December 1947, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1947. WISE PRECAUTIONS

The, decision of the Department of Health, which we announce iff* our news columns, to close all schools in the South Island, and to restrict the attendance of children at public gatherings, will be read by most people with feelings of relief. The infantile paralysis epidemic has not yet spread to the South Island. There is no guarantee that it will not do so. In view of the inadequate knowledge of this dreaded disease, the most that the public health authorities can do is to take every possible step that may hinder or prevent it from travelling throughout the country. While travel between the North and South Islands remains unrestricted, and while the schools and other places in which children may congregate remained free to them in the South Island, it could not be said that the utmost in precautions had been ensured. The Minister of Health, Miss Howard, and her responsible officers, had a difficult question to decide, and they will require the support and goodwill of the people of New Zealand in enforcing their wise decision.

It should not be necessary to emphasise that only by public cooperation and the exercising of public good sense can the measures now. announced, and those which are contemplated, be made as effective in controlling the onspread of the disease as they could be. The official act of closing the schools and putting places of entertainment out of bounds to children is not enough if parents do not accept an individual responsibility to see that the restrictions are observed to the letter. It will be recalled that when infantile paralysis last appeared in Otago its onslaught was confined, and that fact may be attributed to prompt action to isolate the area of infection. Unfortunately, effective travel restrictions have still to be imposed as a measure of precaution in the present epidemic, but it is surely not too much to expect that they now will be. Public anxiety is already keen. It must be supported by the sensible acceptance by the people of irksome regulations, and there need be no cause for too great an apprehension that the present epidemic will not be checked.