Smallpox Danger In
p. 41 · Read in the full issue
Islands
From Our Own Correspondent THE serious outbreak, some time ago. in Scotland, of virulent i Asiatic smallpox threw a hearty scare into the Cook Islands, where mail-matter is sometimes re ceived from the infected area.
An epidemic among small children of skin-eruptions has therefore given our local Medical Department cause for swift action. Victims are isolated, and treated with injections etc. The current disease is ob viously not smallpox, nor is it dangerous to the sufferer, save in the unsightly weals. It appears to be infectious (or contagious) hence the isolation of sufferers, as far as that is possible in native huts.
One wonders what would be the effect, upon an unimmunised native community of genuine smallpox.
With not one in two-thousand vac cinated. the death-roll would be im mense; it might even wipe out the islanders. The danger is so great that the wonder is that the authorities have not taken precau tionary measures.