GERMS OF DISEASE

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 507, 20 February 1920, Page 2

GERMS OF DISEASE

AND A BBER JAR. CURIOUS fIQINCirteNCE. BUT NO PROOF. FACTORY SANITATION. i< "ARRANGEMENTS VERY FAIR." Remarkably interesting correejumdence in reference to the sudden illness of six male residents of Pukekohe came before the Borough Council on Wednesday night in the following letters from the district health officer, Mr. G. H. Monk:—

"In reply to your letter of the 12th inst., the cases of sickness reported from Pukekohe were reported to this office as cases of Influenza in the first instance, by the medical man in attendance, and subsequently the diagnosis was changed to enteric fever.

"An inspection of the factoiv was made by one of our inspectors, and a very curious coincidence came to light. The six men who are ill, and one other, consumed a jar of beer. This was the only factor in common, and we have, therefore, impounded the jar, and are awaiting a bacterijlogical examination of its contents. The sanitary arrangements of the factory where the men worked were very fair, and it certainly seems as though the beer. jar had, something to do with the infection.

A medical man, under section 25 of the Public Health Act, is required to give notice to the health officer, the local authority (in this case, the Hospital Board, who control matters referring to infectious disease), and the householder. Notices are not sent to every local body. (See Hospital and Charitable Institutions Amendment Art*. 1910, Section 6). "When I get a report as to th« contents of the jar I will again communicate with you." The following is the second letter referring to the examination of the jar in question:— / "We have received a report from the bacteriologist on the fluid found in the beer jar mentioned in my previous letter. No typhoid germs were found, and I am too, much the consumption of and the making of the examination. No further cases have come under my notice. H. G. MONK, District Health Officer." The letter was received.