GOITRE MALADY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 September 1924, Page 8

GOITRE MALADY.

FAIRLY PREVALENT IN AUCKLAND DISTRICT.

RESULTS OF, INVESTIGATION

Incipient and established goitre is fairly prevalent throughout Auckland district. (states an exchange). An official investigation into its incidence has disclosed;, the fact that several aieas are only a little less goitrous than Canterbury, while other parts of the province are comparatively free. There is a fair amount of goitre within Greater Auckland, but .nowhere iu this district to so .-prominent an extent as in certain districts in the King Country, such as Taumarunui, in tile thermal zone, particularly Rotorua, and in the greater part of Waikato from Taupo to Taupiri. Medical examination of about 3000 children in many provincial schools throughout the thermal district and Central Waikato has revealed the need for wide practice of simple measures for the prevention of goitre. The percentage of goitrous conditions in the children already examined averages 75 per cent. At a comparatively small school at Lake Taupo, the bead waters of the Waikato-, tbo proportion of goitrous children was 76 per cent. Out of 47 children examined by the school medical officer 14 had incipient goitre, 18 had small goitres, and four showed more than medium enlargement of the thyroid gland. Rotorua school gave a percentage of 73. Out of 424 children examined 184 had incipient goitre, 114 had small goitres, 10 medium-size, and three very large goitres. It. is reported that in the thermal district goitre is fairly, prevalent among the adult population, many Maoris being affected. In the Hamilton district an examination of 1725 children in four schools revealed that 74 per cent, had goitre -in some form, but mostly incipient. Goitrous conditions are described as bad' in the districts of Ngaruawahja and Taupiri. Out of 31 children medically examined at Kimihi* school, near Huntly, 13 had incipient goitre, while eight had small and six had medium-size goitre. There was considerable variation of the prevalence of goitre in other townships in the Waikato watershed and the King Country. Among children attending the Rotoiti school, in the thermal district beyond Rotorua, the proportion of incipient and small goitres was only 30 per cent. In the King Country the lowest percentage of all 18 per cent., was recorded at Piopio! 16 miles beyond Te Kuiti. Goitre !is reported to be prevalent to a considerable extent in and about Tatimaiunui. , Some odd, and iu ; a few cases miserable, objections are made to the campaign of the Health Department agailist goitre, In a certain school in the Waikato the headmaster' objects to the introduction of preventive iodine treatment, on the plea that the admini stratum of 299 prepared tablets would add seriously to the work imposed upon the teachers. Many teachers are eager to co-operate with the Department in improving the health of the nation. One parent, who was informed that his child had a small goitre, returned the card seeking his consent to preventive treatment with a curt refusal, to which was,added the terse comment that he “had had enough of siich damned nonsense while in the New Zealand- Expeditionary .Force.” , Many parents simply ignore the departmental requests.