NECESSITY FOR ACTION

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 115, 19 May 1925, Page 8

NECESSITY FOR ACTION

DEPLORABLE CONDITION OF

AFFAIRS.

The need; for some measure, if' compulsion such "as. is' provided for.in.the proposed regulations^is..-,shown by the fact that iv Christchurch, where there is a well-equipped clinic, 'aid:' where the local:"hospital board 'has- '•- taken special pains to deal -with this question, and where there is a very efficient lady patrol to follow up cases, it is found that on an average there are about 300 fresh cases of venereal disease a year. According to the report presented re-ccntiy'-'Hy DiV Fox, medical' superintendent k .pj the ; _hospital- at ■ Christchurch, only a very small" proportion of the ;women and girls who 1 "attend at- the clinics continue until they cease to- be infective; and a number of those known to be suffering refuse to go to the clinic at all. „

Th o evidence given before the Committee on Venereal Diseases shows that the proportion of those attending at the clinics. and -who remain there until cured is as follows in the case of one city:—Christchurch clinic: Men with syphilis,'''7s per ce'Hf.'j mgn;, with' gonorrhoea, 98 per cent.';'women with' syphilis, 50 per., cent. ;j -women with gonorrhoea, 14 per cent. The Government Year-Book for 1925 shows that for tlw. five years 1919-1923 there were 1356 patients with syphilis, and 1646 suffering- from the effects of gonococcal .infection.,; 21.9. per cent, of those being" of origin syphilitic'and 31.9 per cent, had the disease in a communicable form, as not officially discharged. The Government Statistician explains that these figures relate only to -inpatients, and that the large majority of cases are outside. These figures relate to persons who-were-in the Jorge majority of cases compelled to seek admission for the treatment of some complication resulting from the disease—persons who otherwise would have remained outside the hospital, and who in tho absence of compulsory, notification would remain unnoticed.- ■' . ■