DOCTORS WORRIED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 74, 24 September 1943, Page 4

DOCTORS WORRIED

T.B. AMONG CHILDREN

ORANGE SHORTAGE BLAMED

The allegation was made by a woman questioner at Mr. C. G. Scrimgeour's meeting at the Oddfellows- Hall last evening that doctors at the Wellington Hospital felt that they were unable to cope vvith ;.the .increasing incidence of T. 8.: among children —caused largely by the lack of "oranges and similar fruit.-;'.? After the. last war, the woman said, these had been a striking increase in T.B. among children, and the doctors had never been able to catch up with it completely. Recently a similar alarming increase had become noticeable, and the doctors were worried. She quoted instances of children of four years who had never tasted an orange, and who never would with the fruit at its present scarcity. She alleged, quoting : letters received by her, that, oranges were falling from the trees and rotting on the ground in New Caledonia, and although boats were going to and fro between New Zealand and the island, no oranges were being brought to the Dominion. The questioner, who wore the badge of a nurse, asked if some steps could be taken to remedy this, obviously unbalanced position. Mr. Scrimgeour, in advocating the plentiful provision of protective foods for children, said these commodities were as essential for children as munitions were for the fighting forces.