CURE OF GOITRE

Grey River Argus, 23 June 1925, Page 7

CURE OF GOITRE

IMPORTANT REIPOPT. WELLINGTON, June 20. Ihe Health Department has received a valuable report on endemic goi't.n* in New Zealand from Professor Hereus, of ' Otago, with whom have been assoviateil Professor Benson, Professor of Geology, and Mr. C. L. Garter, lecturer on Chemistry. The report states that, as indicating the-prevalence of goitre in... New Zealand, it may be mentioned that the routine' of school medical inspection for 1924 shows that ,out of 55- ()()() children examined, goitre (of a different degree) existed in 18.33 per cent, made up as follows:—lncipient, 12.53 per cent; small, 5 per cent; medium, 7 per cent; large 11 per cend. In 1920 an. endeavour was made' to establish accurately the extent to which thryoid enlargement prevailed amongst (lie school children of Canterbury and West-kind. Ihe majority of children examinee, were in the age groups of five to fourteen years. The results were summarised as follows: —Of the »lii - ren examined, «39 per cent were founo to have normal and 61 per cent enlarged thyroids, 'flic report says that the fundamental factor in the causation of goitre, is a deficient intake of iodine, the prevention of the disease should lx' a comparatively simple problem. “We believe that the best method of prophylaxis considered on physiological grounds as well as those ol ef ficiency and economy, would bo derived from a daily ingestion of mmute amounts of iodine, by the utilisation for all culinary and table purposes of an iodised satt, in which one part of potassium iodide had been added to 100,000 of sodium chloride.”