SPOTTED TYPHUS FEVER.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 466, 26 April 1890, Page 5

SPOTTED TYPHUS FEVER.

Although the number of fever cases reported of late has nob been so large as in some previous years, it would appear that there are,at the present time,a good number of typhoid fever patientsboth abtheHospital and elsewhere. Dr. Bakewell informs us of a somewhat remarkable incidenb in this connection which took place yesterday morning. He had been called upon to visit a patient in a house in Abercrombie-streeb from which a fever patient had previously been removed and had died ab the Hospital. On arrival at tho house Dr. Bakewell found a young man lying on a bed in an unconscious condition, and he was informed that the invalid had been ill since the previous Sunday. The young man had all the characteristic symptoms of spotted typhus, and Dr. Bakewell deemed it advisable to have him removed to the Hospital. He made application for tho admission of the invalid to that institution, and as some difficulties were made there he wrote to His Worship the Mayoi epresenting the facts of the case. The Mayor acted pretty promptly, and an order was obtained for admission of the man to the Hospital. Here, however, a further difficulty arose. Mr Crowther placed the ambulance waggon at the disposal of the authorities, leaving them to got a driver themselves. Some trouble was experienced on this score, but eventually one of the employees of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board volunteered to fill the vacancy. The invalid was carried to thß ambulance waggon on a stretcher and driven to the Hospital, but then it was found that the stretcher would nob pass through tho door, and the invalid had to be carried by hand right through the building to the fever ward. Dr. Bakewell says the male fever wards are full, and besides these cases there are a number of others already reported from the Asylum. Measles and scarlatina have also made their appearance in town, and Dr. Bakewell thinks the authorities and the public should be awakened to the fact. Ho attributes the increase of such diseases to the long season of drought recently experienced being followed by light showers of rain, which percolated the soil and brought out impurities, which he believes would account for most of these diseases. The house from which the typhus patient was taken in Abercrombie-street has been vacated, and it will be thoroughly fumigated under instructions from the city authorities.