DISEASE AMONG SOLDIERS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 34, 11 February 1915, Page 2

DISEASE AMONG SOLDIERS

THE DANCER ON THEIR RETURN The danger of diseases being frought back by returning troops was referred to by Dr. Doyle in the*' Victorian Legislative Council last week. A number of soldiers, he said, had unfortunately become infected, and some would soon be sent back suffering from, say, venereal diseases. Had the Board of Health or the Minister, he asked, any power to intern these men till they were clear of infection. He mentioned the matter so that the Minister might look into the question and take some precautions.

Mr Flowers (the Minister) replied that the quarantine regulations in regal'd to smallpox were entirely a Federal matter and the State was simply carrying out the precautions laid down. Possibly he would agree that in some cases the inspection was ineffectual and farcical. Dr. Doyle had done a service in directing his attention to the possibility of infection through the returning soldiers, so that he might get into touch with the Federal authorities in order that every precaution might be taken. It would make them alive to the possibility. He quite understood that Dr. Doyle had made the statement for what it was worth. He did not believe it was tine that any considerable number of men were affected. He knew the seriousness of it, and hoped that the report was not correct.