The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1925. PROGRESS IN HEALTH.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 36, 12 February 1925, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1925. PROGRESS IN HEALTH.

For the cause ihat lacks assistance. For the iDrong that needs resistoaee. For the fuivre in the distance. And the good that to* nan do.

Dr. J. ,S. Purdy's address to the Auckland Sanitary Inspectors' Association invites inhabitants of this eitv to

"count their blessings." Looking back a few years, and remembering general conditions from the point of view of public health, there are very many reasons for satisfaction. Those who remember the days when water sanitation was a luxury will know what Dr. Purdy means when ho refers to the "crudities" of those days. He notes that the death-rate in 1907 was 11.4: i per thousand for the metropolitan district, and now with a much more thickly populated area it is 9.03 per thousand. Similarly the Dominion infantile death-rate has declined from 97.3 to 43 per thousand. Dr. Furdy must have smiled when he said that no part of the world had so favourable a death-rate amongst infants "except the West-of Ireland, which is one of the most insanitary districts in the British Empire." Its death-rate is 3S per thousand! This, said the lecturer, was probably due to the fact that mothers lived upon milk, butter, and potatoes, and the children were breastfed. With regard to what are sometimes referred to as "filth diseases," typhoid and diphtheria (infection spread by flies well proven in the former), there is not so much room for general congratulation as there might be, for in 1919 there were 203 cases of typhoid in the Dominion, and in the following years 207 and 243, rising to 330 in 1922. In the year 1923 the cases dropped to 147, and of these 73 were in the Auckland health district, where there were 188 cases in 1924. Diphtheria lessened yearly from 2221 in 1919 to 1457 in 1923. Of these 585 were in Auckland health district, which had 68S cases in 1924. Tuberculosis has risen from 1094 cases in 1919 to 1326 in 1923, Dominion figures. It is in these three diseases that health measures and general sanitary improvements chiefly show their effect. There is yet much to be done to gain in future fights with disease. First, probably, is the destruction of flies and mosquitoes, and this is a campaign in which the public can give most assistance. There are stables (breeding ground for flies) hidden here and there in the residential areas and close to the heart of the city. Municipal dust carts arc a serious and obvious danger, the method of collecting being less efficient than the manner in which distribution of dust takes place during the process and in course of transfer to the destructor. In the handling and delivery of food there is room for greater care, more particularly with meat and bread. The cleansing of carts, baskets, and boxes is much neglected, and supervision in this is certainly required. In an ideal city clothing sent from factory to shop would be sterilised by heat, and packing of all kinds would be made safer. Channels of infection are so numerous that it sometimes seems unfair to place the responsibility of guarding the community upon any body of officials. In most infectious diseases entry is {rained by nose and throat, and the fact that dust long exposed to air seldom does harm is due to that form of disinfection. Public vehicles are less used by sick persons than taxi cars, ana owners should note destinations required and apply for disinfection after carrying a passenger possibly suffering from disease. Finally, the attention of the Health Department should be drawn to the condition of public lavatories, a more thorough and more frequent cleansing of these places being necessary. It is obvious to anyone who has known Auckland for many years that the citizens have been stimulated by their health officers and inspectors to a constantly increasing interest in the sanitary condition of the city, and it is exactly this feature in city life which may result in the improvement of our present record— good as it may be by comparison with less favoured places.