INFLUENZA.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 February 1922, Page 5

INFLUENZA.

PRECAUTIONS IN NEW ZEALAND. HEALTH DEPARTMENT CONCERNED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Feb. 3. The reported prevalence of pneumonic influenza in Britain and America was mentioned in the House of Representatives by Mr. V. H. Read (Bay of Islands), who asked what precautions were being taken by the Department of Public Health. He suggested that the creation of emergency organisation might be desirable. The Minister for Health (Mr. Parr) replied that his Department was watching the spread of influenza with considerable concern. A cablegram from the High Commissioner this week had reported that in Britain the trouble was widespread and was increasing, although not in so severe a form as in 1918. The epidemic had been reported from all the countries of Europe. Influenza in the severe form was now prevalent in the States of Eastern America. The Department believed that New Zealand ran the risk of another visitation of influenza. He had asked the officers of the Department to take every precaution and to make preparations for the possibility of an outbreak. The exclusion of th© disease from the Dominion was not an easy matter, but he had asked the Department to take stringent precautions in the examination of persons arriving at New Zealand ports from overseas. He thought that the temperature of every person arriving aboard a ship should be taken. The epidemic of 1918, added the Minister, had started in Europe and had spread to America and thence, to New Zealand. The present epidemic had followed the same course as far as America. The fumigation of mails was undertaken by the Postal Department, with special reference to plague infection.