THE EPIDEMIC.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 November 1918, Page 8

THE EPIDEMIC.

THE COASTAL DISTRICTS.

(HOSPITAL AND MEDICAL WORE ARRANGED,

IMPORTANT STATEMENT -BXi iDli. WALKJiK.

: On Friday evening Major Keenan, attached temporarily to the Public Health Department, arrived in Opimake with instructions to take charge of the Egmoot '■County district and organise means with which to fight the epidemic. lie apr proved of the proposal to open temporary hospitals at Piiiama and Warea, insti - i titions laving already, a,t <|he instance of the Hospital authorities, 'been established at Opunake, Rahotn, Pangarelm, and Okato, which he inspected. He intimated it would be necessary to consen- • trate all the serious cases at tEese lmepitals and that thoso of a milder nattffe would have to <bo treated at home. He ■also arranged for settlers to visit the ; koines of thou- fellows daily, so as to .'is certain the condition of health of the • families.

Yesterday some members of the !{<•■■: Plymouth Citizens' Health Commit saw Major Keenan at- Warea. whei i public meeting was held, with a view to co-ordinating their activities, ami later the Mayor came into town and conferred with Dr. Walker (Hospital Superintendent) and the executive of the Citizens' Committee.

Dr. Walker said fliai they 2iad not been advised by the Department of •Major Keenan's appointment to the district, which, of course, was very grateful indeed for the extra medical assistance, of which the whole of the province was gTeatly in nced'just now, but it would bo necessary to define the respective dis■*ricts so that there should bo no overlapping. He could say at ionce that Major Keenan could rely upon the earnest and fullest cooperation of the New Plymouth doctors and tho Citizens' Health Committee. They were fighting tho most deadly and malignant epidemic they had every experienced, and*it was now not wholly a doctor's matter; it was a fight in which every citizen and every settler was vitally concerned, for it was a question of life and death. Without the help of the splendid organisation— got together and in operation in the course of 30 hours—the <k>ctors could never have coped with it. As a result of their energetic work and the active preventive measures they had taken, he felt certain that they had now got the mastery of it in New Plymouth. In fact, never since the outbreak had he felt so happy about it as he did that day. He could tell them now that ten of the cases in the Hospital which 'but a short time ago ho regarded as all but hopeless liad made such progress during the past 24 hours that he was hopeful of their recovery. The admissions on Saturday showed a diminution, and he was hopeful that the convalescents would soon counter-bal-ance the admissions. Then, again, the class of illness from which the town patients now arriving were suffering was not so serious as it had been. Fortunately, they had had the old hospital buildings to fall back upon, enabling them to double the normal accommodation. The patients were now over 200, about 150 being influenza cases. They had not yet trenched upon their whole reserves, as they still had a ward in the old buildings ready for further cases. He pointed out that they only had four nurses out of a staff of 43 on duty who had been free from the illness, but they had the assistance of a fine body of exnurses and V.A.D.B, "and they were carrying on splendidly, and would be able, he felt sure, to maintain the pressure, so long as it did not get any greater, until the epidemic had passed. Dr. Walker referred to the converting of the seaside pavilion into convalescent homes and to the, means taken by the New Plymouth' Citizens' and Women's Committees to combat the disease, which that day showed a considerable diminution, only 48 new cases being reported and the recoveries being ICH, They could see that the epidemic was now in hand. Proceeding to discuss t,hs operations m the country, he said that the members of the committee were doing all they could in this direction, and pro- • posed, 49 the vork in town decreased, as it was decreasing, to go out further and take a bigger sh.ire in the preventive measures there. He felt sure that the full force of the wave had not yet been felt in the coastal and country districts, and that it would need all their efforts to cope with it successfully.

Major Keenan: I ,■■■■ . : i • ngrea with you. Dr. Walker said ■ ;!■..? danger was n eommoa one i ,1! bo no use wiping it out in New i'lymeuth. and have it raging virulently in the country, as that would only be inviting a recurrence of the trouble in the .town. For that reason, if for not other, they must in self-defence assist the country. As a matter of fact, what had already been done hy the town organisation for'" the eountrt showed that tha town people realised they ow<>d a <Tntr to their country brothers and were gladly discharging it. (Hear, hear.) The old cry of town versus countrv. born of ignorance and misunderstanding, which the local newspapers had done so much to remove, no

longer existed—at any rate, he venture*, to think that after the present lnanifestation of unselfish endtavor and enthusiastic co-operation of the townspeople with the country settlers, it would die for ever. So that it could be expected .that the organisation would soon grapple thoroughly with the coastal'district and other country districts. They should define their boundaries and come to an understanding on one or two points. He suggested that as New Plymouth had already organised tlio districts concerned they should continue to control the the country as far as Pungarchu, leaving Major Kecnan with the territory from that point to Pihama. Skilled nursing in these places was a problem, and thev would requir3 to call upon others to help. He was prepared to assist Major Keenan to the fullest, extent and tjlce at the local Hospital any serious cases that could not bo treated satisfactorily at the temporary hospitals. But he was sorry to say he could spare no skilled nurses, for the reasons that he had given. The New Plymouth organisations would ibegiad to give him whatever i other assistance in its power.

Major Keenan explained that he wa.s only temporarily attached to the Health Department in order to render whatever help he could in connection with the epidemic. He had come up to Egmont on instructions from the Department. He-thanked Dr- Walker for his kind offer of assistance, and was pleased to hear what had been and was being done by i the New Plymouth organisation. He did not desire to interfere with their plans or hamper their work in any way; on the contrary, ho was anxious to cooperate with them and the- local medicos. He had seen enough" of the district to realise that no one man could cope with the disease I? it overtook the district in the way it had in Wellington. There it was very serious, far more so than the newspapers had indicated. They had there the virulent pneumonic form that struck its victims down in a few hours. "Only the night before he loft there were over 70 deaths. Fortunately, they had not yet got that virulent type in the Opunake district, hut there was no reason to believe they would be immune from it. In fact, its visitation was inevitable. For that reason precautions had to bo taken and provision made to meet it. That was why he was there. Ho was doing his .best, visiting the temporary hospitals twice daily. So far, the cases were mild. Ho was handicapped by a lack of trained nurses, and had wired Wellington for some, though he knew at the time that the chance of obtaining them was slender. Wellington had replied in the negative. This meant they would have to carry on with what little skilled nursing they had and to improvise other labor. Just a minute or two before he had get telephone advice of the illness of one of his traiued nurses. That aggravated his difficulties. After reaching Opunake and seeing tha local body representatives, he had advised Wellington that the "position was in hand," and he had now got advice that in view of another doctor taking up practice in Kaponga shortly ho miglit return to lingtonOf course what lie meant was that the arrangements for combatting the disease were in hand, not that the disease was. The responsibility for his staying in the Opunake district rested with the local bodies, who could get into touch with the Wellington authorities. For himself, he was prepared to work wherever he was directed to goAs for working the coast, he believed it would he as well for New Plymouth to continue to supervise work as far as Pungarehu, and to take any serious Hospital cases from the other part of his He could not undertake any other work outside of the influenza cases, and hid made this clear to the local bodies. Dr. Walker intimated this could he arranged quite well. It would be necessary, however, for the coastal districts to obtain' the services of some V.A.D.'s, and probably it could he arranged to have them trained at !New Plymouth. The settlers must, as far as possible, help themselves in this matter and work on self-reliant lines. But there was a serious difficulty which perhaps would not he apparent to an outsider, and that was the fact that for tits last two or throe years the farmers had been working at high tension, with no reserve whatever, owing to their son 3 being away at the war aiflll shortage of labor, and it meant that the farmers and their wives and any help they had were not as strong as they otherwise would not be able to ward off the disease They would also find instances of ignorance of hygiene and the advantage of fresh air through the home, So that should the disease of tTie virulent type reach the district—and candidly he feared it was inevitable—they would have their work cut out to deal with it successfully.

After further discussion, it was decided that New Plymouth should control the Okato, Warea, and Piingarehu districts, Major Keenan confining his attention to the southern districts and' working in conjunction with Or. Walker in th'c serious cases Major Keenan is arranging to establish a Maori "clearing house"—like Tito's bouse on the Kgmont Road—ths serious cases coming into the New Plymouth Native hospital. At Opunako he will have his central hospital. T.ast nisht full particulars reenrding the working of the New Plymouth organisation, with supplies of literature, etc., were despatched to 1 Opunake.