Typhoid fever in Waimate.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 195, 29 August 1901, Page 3

Typhoid fever in Waimate.

At yesterday’s meeting of the County Council a letter was read from Dr Symes, with regard to the cases of typhoid in the Wairaate District. Two cases in January and May this year respectively occurred just outside the Borough boundary. There appear to have been some six cases at Waihao Downs two years ago, and these were caused by drinking water polluted by the drainage of three pigstyes. He advised the removal of the pigstyes. He enclosed a chart showing the incidence of typhoid fever in Waimate Borough and the County, as far as could be gathered from the hospital records fo t the last seventeen years. Prior to 1893 only one cape of typhoid was admitted to the hospital from the County, bnt sinCe that year it had spread to Painstown,. Hook, Nukuroa, Makikihi,- Waihao and Waihao Downs. The polluted water supply of Waimate was undoubtedly the constant cause of typhoid fever, and it appears to Dr Symes that it was the duty of the County Council to serlopsly consider in what wajf it can cooperate with the Borough Council in promoting a supply of pure water to the suburbs of Waimate, which belong to the county. The chart showed that the health of the county was as much involved in the question of water supply as was the health of the borough. The chart included every case of typhoid admitted to the Waimate Hospital since 1884 till the end of 1900. the chart showed that there were no cases prior to 1887. In that year there were 2 ? 1888, 5 ; 1889, 14; 1891, 6 ) 1892, 19; 1893, 2 ; .1894,4 ; 1895,10 ; 1896, 12.; 1897,8 ; 1898, 7; 1899,7; 1900, 4 ; a total of 100 cases, of which 72 were from Waimate borough and 28 from the county. Dr Symes was present and pointed out that the cases he mentioned were those admitted into the hospital. He thought Waimate worse than most towns of its size. From his chart he thought that, typhoid was spreading to the different parts of the country. Thete wfe're a nttmbpr of wells in Waimate and suburbs that ought to be closed, j Dr Symes was thanked for bis report, but the chairman said he did not think they were likely in the meantime to go in ’with the Borough in getting down a water supply.