DANGER OF GOITRE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVIII, Issue 10976, 23 July 1927, Page 4

DANGER OF GOITRE.

SCHOOL DOCTOR’S WARNING. GRAVE SITUATION DISCLOSED. (Per Press Association.) v CHRISTCHURCH. This Day. Warning of the grave danger in neg--lecting goitre was givfen by Dr Bakerf McLaglan in a report to the Canter-* bury Education Board yesterday, which gave the information that at the Girls’ High School 89 per cent, of tho pupils have goitre. The report stated:— “Dr. Hercus and I together visited Aulsebrook’s factory and the Girls’ 1 High School. We saw between 30Q' and 400 of the Girls’ High School pup-* ds. and found 89 per cent :.f goitre! there, of which' 79 per cent v. ...s plainly! visible. In addition we in.errogatecfl each girl to see what, if any, , reatmentj she had taken, either preventive ort curative. About a quarter only had done anything. Of these, most wero at the Girls’ High School hostel, and had had iodised salt there for about ai year. A few with marked goitre had! been to a doctor, or a chemist,, and goti something to rub on. or a bottle oil unedicine. which they had used lor a> few weeks. Not more than five 1 girls in all had made anything ,at all. worth calling a reasonable attempt at pre- - - tuition

When Prevention Must Begin,. “Of course, most of the goitres at that age are already well established,< , and ‘prevention’ is out of the question. I To try and cure goitre well established! ■ at fifteen is much like chasing ani express train. The thyroid gland begins . secreting in the sixth month of pre- ■ natal life, and if there is a shortage of , the essential iodine in the. mother’s blood, the thyroid may enlarge beforebirth. Already in Christchurch a num T ber of babies are born with goitrel Therefore prevention must be .begun! before birth, by supplying the infinitesimal amounts of iodine rt-auired irr the mother’s diet. “When a child comes to school wo are and a half years late, even if every child took school treatment as a routine, which they do not. Moreover, treatment at school has the serious disadvantage that the public are led to suppose the treatment at school is all that is necessary, instead of t. eatment from before birth steadily on .hroughout life in a goitre district. Broadly speaking, except for Taranaki and the Auckland province north of Mercer, ail New Zealand is goitre-bearing in varying degrees. Yet it is undesirable that iodine be used in excess. The amounts required are so minute -that it is difficult for the mind to appreciate them. It is therefore better to use a brand of salt of a strength designed only ,to make up the deficiency and regularly tested by a scientific laboratory. In those comparatively rare instances where iodine or iodised sale has done harm, two factors have been present: (a) the iodine has been excessive (some brands of iodised salt are ten times the strength of lhe one mentioned), and (b) the thyroid has already become abnormal.

“It is seven years since Professor Hercus and myself first made up statistics of' goitre at the Girls’ Higk School. It was then 92 per cent., practically the same as at present. From that day till this we have preached goitre prevention (not cure), and with each succeeding year we have spoken more definitely and with more authority. Yet at the end of seven years not more than half a dozen girls in our High School had made any real attempt- at prevention. And eighty-nine per cent, have goitre, of which seventynine per pent.'is olainly visible. It is the old story that there are “none so deaf as those who will not hear,” for there cannot longer be ignorance. The tragedy of this apathy lies in the fact that each succeeding generation will get worse.

Menace to Canterbury. “In two hundred years Canterbury will be like Switzerland, where they have thousands of cretin imbeciles due to thyroid degeneration through successive generations. It is not for ourselves we must act, but for those un- v born generations yet to come to inherit this fair land. “If I could only wake our people to this danger, to the urgency of the call for action, to the simplicity of prevention —then should all my years of labour for the children of this province not he wasted. And the years are slipping by so fast, I have so few left ; to do this thing. Seven years ago there were 92 per cent, at the Girls’ High School; to-day there are 89 per cent.—most eases too late to help—’many of them doomed to danger and suffering, some of them to death, from goitre—and almost every case there now could have been prevented if treatment had been begun and persisted in steadily seven, or even five, years ago when Professor Hercus and myself first showed how serious was the position.”

It was resolved to send the Minister' of Health a copy of the report.