PUBLIC HEALTH

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3177, 30 August 1917, Page 7

PUBLIC HEALTH

CARE Of SOLDIERS

DEPARTMENT'S ANNUAL REPORT.

Tho annual report of tho Public Health and Hospitals and Charitable- Aid Department was laid on the table ol the House of KeprcsenfaVives yesterday. Tho report states that premises have been secured, and two soldiers with Eoohampton Hospital experience engaged to manufacturn artificial limbs, and already repairs have been effected lor some of our maimed soldiers. _ There has been a considerable increase in Hie number of cases of infectious diseases notified, especially as regards scarlet iover and diphtheria. Of tho former no fewer than 4278 cases wero .notified, an increase of 1377 over the previous year. Of diphtheria, 2376 cases wero notified, an increase of 972 as compared wltli the previous year. There was a decrease of fourteen in the number °f notifications of enteric fever (b(H>). me year was an unfortunate one as regards die epidemic of infantile paralysis, no fewer than 101S cases being reported as follow :-Erom Auckland .pMwrwial district, 540; Wellington, 382; Canterbury, 05; and Otago, 25. During the year 135 cas«s ot cerebrospinal meningitis wero notified, an mcreaso of 50 over the previous year. There wero 54 deaths. "In several reports," says tho Inspec-. tor-General (Dr. Valintinei, reporting to the Alinister, "reference has been made to the large number of cases of consumption occurring amongst members ot the Expeditionary Force. 'Up to date, no fewer than 2GI cases have been reported. Two hundred and eighty-one cases were also notified by the medical .boards. These figures show the necessity for increasing "the accommodation for consumptives in the Dominion, and'l have no doubt that it will before long to necessary to erect an additional sanatorium for consumptives in the North Island. The institution at Cambridge is capable nt the utmost of accommodating one hundred patients, though considerable improvements will have, to bo eflected there before it can be said to be thoroughly equipped in every particular lor the treatment of this disease, lour recent decision that this institution should be reserved entirely for male patients is a very excellent one, aixl as time goes on it .may be possible to 60 'improve this sanatorium that it can with. M>me degree of confidence be compared _ with similar institutions in Otaki and Christchurch. But owing to the configuration of the land, its situation, and its distance from the- town, it will never bo possible to administer this place as efficiently and as economically as institutions of a similar nature more favourably situated. With tho erection of a new institutions that does not suffer from tlio disadvantages that Te Waikato labours under it mi'lit be possible to divert the knit now attached to it to some other useful purpose. It is also fortunate that you deoided to take over tlie sanatorium at Otaki irom tho Wellington Hospital .Board. It is proposed for the present to uso Otaki for female patients only, but as time goes on ii will be necessary to greatly increase tho accommodation at this institution. It is indeed questionable if it would not be of great advantage to the.community for tho Government to take over all the existing consumptive sanatoria. There is no doubt that there is much argument on the side of the administration of consumption being regarded as a national rather than a. local responsibility. Dealing with tho question of smallpox, Dr Valintino says the latest reports of vaccination inspectors show that not one per cent., of tho children born in tho •Dominion ..have?been vacillated, and though possibly a number of children wero vaccinated and wero not notified, yet undoubtedly a very largo percentage of children born in the-Dominion nre not vaccinated, though it is tho only known means of protection against tho grave and horrible disease of smallpox.