Polio Epidemic Feared
p. 16 · Read in the full issue
In Solomons Severe Restrictions on Travel
NOTHING official has been said yet; but fears are entertained in well informed circles that the infantile paralysis (poliomyelitis) epidemic has at tained serious proportions in the British Solomon Islands.
It is not clear how the disease, which is now epidemic in New Zealand, slipped through the medical guard into the
Solomons; but it was reported there early in December. It caused alarm —it could do great harm in that primitive native community.
Severe restrictions have been imposed upon all travellers in that area. The British Resident Commissioner in the New Hebrides, early in January, advised Trans Oceanic Airlines (who have been running a flying-boat fairly regularly be tween Sydney, New Hebrides and the Solomons) that passengers would not be allowed to land in the Solomons and that there would be restrictions also on their stopping off in the New Hebrides. (See also article on page 32.)