HEALTH PROBLEMS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 220, 28 June 1943, Page 6

HEALTH PROBLEMS.

TRUTH VERSUS SUPERSTITION. PROPER, EDUCATION NEEDED. Probably no other subject in. the world, including weddings, has such 11 .fabric of superstition surrounding it -as the subject of health. Although we are supposed to be living in civilised times, doctors, nurses and others connectd with the medical profession confess that they come up against super stition at almost every‘’turn. So deep-rooted are many of these beliefs that some patients doggedly insist in spite of their medical adviser’s goodnatured protests that they are suffering from lockjaw because they cut their hand between the thumb and finger, or that their neuritis is the result of having too many baths. Actually the belief about lockjaw arises because it is not an uncommon occurrence to injure the hand .when gardening and handling manure, and; as the tetanus germ is present- in such maerials as horse manure it gains access to tlie system in this manner. A good deal of superstition is also connected with bathing. Health workers in this very district have come across men who proudly declare that they have not had' a bath for 40 years and they believe implicitly that that is why they aro never ill. Recently in Christchurch an athlete who was training for a cross country run was told by a gratuitous adviser to refrain from having a bath for at. least a week before the contest. Beliefs About Pregnancy. A case frequently encountered by doctors is that of the pregnant woman who has seen some disagreeable sight and anxiously asks if the baby will be marked. All the .publicity in the world does not seem to have the slightest effect on the aura of superstition surrounding pregnancy and childbirth. There are many women who, should a. hare" cross their path during pregnancy, go in, fear that the child will have a hare lip. Some interesting experiences were related recently by the District Health Nurse at Ashburton (Miss W. Hungerfordj. She has a. big district, extending from Rakaia. to Temuka, in which her biggest tasks are school visits and tuberculosis control. “I bad a pretty bad time getting established,” said Miss Hungcrford, “but once the people and l the children came to knew me I got on much better.” First contact with disease or wrong living of any kind is made, at the schools, after which the nurso visits the homes'and educates the mothers. These visits to the homes met with varied receptions at first but it was not long before; mothers were only too willing to co-operate in every way possible to safeguard the health of their children. “Even yet, howeier, there is one family that slams the door in my face every time I go there, Miss Hungcrford said. On. her first visits tc the schools the District Health Nurse met with a varied reception —most of the children were shy. It- was not long, however, before they came to know her and told her their troubles with no diffidence whatsoever. Miss Hungerford’s task, like that of a doctor, is not entirely unencumbered by superstitous beliefs. She mentioned persons who would not sleep with the moonlight shining on their faces for fear it would send them insane. ‘ Then there were instances of women who objected to bathing children every night “because it took too much out of their skin.”