FLYING CLINIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 60, 12 March 1938, Page 22

FLYING CLINIC.

FIGHTING TUBERCULOSIS. INDIANS IN* CANADA. OTTAWA. The spread of tuberculosis among the Indians of Canada has been definitely checked by a. campaign being waged by tlie Dominion (iovemment. A flvinof clinic, including an X-ray and electrical generator to operate it, is being flown into the remote Northern regions. While the aeroplane has been used in the jiast to carry medicine and supplies to remote districts and to bring sick and injured Indians to hospitals, this is the first time the facilities of a modern cbnic have been flown to the lonely regions. » Tuberculosis has been the greatest scourge of the Indians. Leaving their normal mode of life in tepee and tent, the Indians clustered into little wooden houses and the disease spread rapidly. The Government is employing 500 doctors and dentists on whole or part time, and has several hospitals of its own and a smafl field nursing service to take care of the health of the 115,000 Indians living in some 800 separate communities in Canada. Progress in the eradication of the diseases to which the Indians are most susceptible is making its greatest strides through the attention given to the Indian children in the schools. A large number of residential schools have been surveyed and resurveyed so that all the pupils are examined, many of them hv X-ray. A competent specialist advises the | medical officers, and school principals.