IN QUARANTINE.

Taihape Daily Times, 16 May 1919, Page 4

IN QUARANTINE.

SHOCKING CONDITIONS

SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS BY MEN FROM MANUKA.

The members of the, crew of the steamer Manuk;'!', w r ho, during the past few days, have been released from quarantine on Somes Island, Wellington, are loud in their protests against the conditions prevailing at the quarantine station. ■ They contend that the

building equipment, and sanatary arrangements arc utterly out of date, and a disgrace to the department which is supposed to guard the health of the public. The men state that they had no bathrooms, and that the lavatories

are of a primitive type, consisting of lean-to’s with oil drums. They say that most of the windows in the dwellings and the hospital have the glass broken. Cardboard and wood arc used os substitutes in a vain ende;s%our to keep the draught out. The hospital is in an exposed position, and, consequently, exceedingly /draughty, The patients who were not severely ill complained of coldness, despite the fact that they had- more than khe usual number of blankets.

Thirty-five members of the Manuka’s crew were in quarantine, of which number IS had the influenza. Five of the patients have died. No provision, it is said, was made for the accommodation of three stewardesses, who, therefore, had to live in the quarter-master sergeant’s house. The nurse in charge of the hospital lived in iho same house, and could, oh one occasion, have brought infection to the stewardesses.. It is urged, also, that when so many cases are in quarantine, a doctor should reside on the island. The medical officer who visited the island daily remained two hours, but this was not considered adequate medical attention by those who saw the condition of the men wdio were ill. There were only five patients when the men were first placed on the island, the other thirteen developing the disease later.