Eight people who contracted typhoid, including a Pakistani businessman, were kept in isolation at the Lautoka Hospital for a few days as health authorities investigated cases in the Western Division.
This, according to an article published on March 29, 1984.
The report said the Pakistani businessman was a visitor to Fiji and was admitted to the Lautoka Hospital for 10 days.
Acting Divisional Medical Officer Western Dr Aisea Rafai said that there were four confirmed cases, and four suspected cases, with one more suspected case under investigation.
Lautoka Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Ponsami Goundar said all the patients were in satisfactory condition.
He said there was more chance of the Pakistani, who came to Fiji on March 9, being a carrier rather than contracting typhoid here.
Dr Rafai said health authorities were not sure where the Pakistani picked it up from, so unless they could trace it, they would not be able to notify any of the countries he travelled through.
It was understood he passed through Australia and other countries.
Five others in hospitals were children from a family in Namoli Village, Lautoka. The other included a woman from Navutu, Lautoka, and a man from Namotomoto in Nadi.
The health staff at Lautoka had begun immunising people and kept a strict surveillance for suspected cases.
Meanwhile, the Health Department at Lautoka said officials had located two suspected areas which could have caused the typhoid breakout in the West.
But Dr Rafai said the two areas which included people as well as defects in the environment had to be confirmed.
