PUBLIC HEALTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 July 1941, Page 3

PUBLIC HEALTH

DEPARTMENT’S REPORT

WELLINGTON, July 26. Despite the war, the state of the public health in New Zealand during 1940 remained on a comparatively high plane, stated the annual report of the Health Department, presented to the House of Representatives. In some respects, it showed an improvement over pre-war years. The incidence of notifiable infectious diseases dropped, the maternal mortality rate and tuberculosis death-rate were unusually favourable, and the infant mortality rate reached a new low level record of 30.21 per 1000 live births. Vital statistics, exclusive of those for Maoris, showed the death-rate at 9.25 per 1000 mean population, compared with 9.2 in 1939, and total births at 32,771, the rate of 21.19 per 1000 mean population being the highest since 1925. Attempts to control the spread of diphtheria by compulsory notifications and removal to hospital of cases, and the control of: carriers, had reached the practical limit of their usefulness, the report said; but it was now accepted that the disease could be prevented by active immunisation with toxoid-anti-toxin measures. The campaign by this means had produced encouraging results in New Zealand. When it had been carried out for an extended period through the c'o-operation of parents, it was hoped to reach in growing numbers children of pre-school age. The parents of children entering school would be invited to have them protected against diphtheria when the school medical officer carried out the medical examination of a school. Heart diseases (4565) and cancer (1858) head the list of the principal causes of death, of which 14.282 took place last year.