TUBERCULOSIS PREVENTION

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27401, 14 July 1954, Page 7

TUBERCULOSIS PREVENTION

“Dramatic Progress” MR MARSHALL REVIEWS CAMPAIGN (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 13. The Health Department’s campaign against tuberculosis demonstrated in a Striking way the co-operation between preventive and curative medicine, and the dramatic progress which was being made to combat the disease, said the Minister of Health (Mr J. R. Marshall), speaking in the Address-in-Reply debate in the House of Representatives tonight. . x , In contrast to previous years, today there was an atmosphere of hope and confidence in the tuberculosis institutions, where the number of beds was adequate for the cases requiring them, said the Minister. The closing of the Pleasant Valley Sanatorium would mean a saving of £20,000 a year, and the large sanatorium planned for Levin, costing £700,000 and requiring £70,000 a year for maintenance charges, was no longer wanted. There were between 40 and 50 empty beds at Waipiata, where two years ago there was a waiting list, Mr Marshal] said. Nowhere in New Zealand was there now a waiting list for tuberculosis patients. Cases were being found earlier and treated earlier.

The tuberculosis death rate had fallen from 30.8 in each 100,000 of population in 1947 to 12.2, said Mr Marshall. “It is a dramatic story of the conquest of disease, not by the Labour Party or by the National Government, but by scientists, doctors, nurses, and administrators, working together,” he said. “This should give satisfaction to everyone in New Zealand, in that preventive and curative medicine are achieving spectacular results. “It is not a matter into which party politics should enter, and I have no doubt that had the Labour Government remained in power, it would have striven to obtain the same results.” Mr Marshall dealt also with aspects of child hygiene, and said that the ground had been prepared for a greater advance in health work for pre-school children. Already child health centres had been established in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, where teams of specialists were doing good work.