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Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 30 December 1924, Page 5

REDUCED IN THE PACIFIC. (Ji¥ TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIAXiOXs.. AUCKLAND, Dec. 29. r A review of health conditions in S>a.moa and the work done during the past year was given by Dr. T. P. Ritchie, chief; medical officer' of Samoa, /who arrived by the Tofua. on a three months’ holiday visit to New Zealand. _ Dr. Ritchie stated that the fight against tropical diseases was bearing good results and the general health outlook was, very bright indeed. '

“This year has been an extremely healthy one,” continued Dr. Ritchie. “We are . gradually getting better sanitary conditions in the villages and the natives are becoming more alive to the benefits of Western medicines and Western sanitation, 1 so the- general health of the people cannot but improve.” For the past four years Dr. Ritchie and his assistants have been waging war with the hookworm and yaws diseases, and now the results of their battle , are beginning to show. During, the twenty months since free treatment was brought into vogue 50,009 injections had been given for yaws alone in Western Samoa. Yaws is a tropical disease very prevalent in the South Pacific. An average of three injections are required for each ease and from 15,000 to 20,000 cases had been treated out of a population of some 34,000. Dr. Ritchie said that over 90 per cent, of the natives had been proved to suffer from hookworm, a disease that resulted in anaemia and general debility. They were treating hookworm on the lines followed by the Rockefeller Foundation and these methods were proving eminently successful. “We consider that we have these two diseases well under control,” added Dr. Ritchie, “and at the present rate of extinction they should be almost eliminated in a year or two.” ■ " '

A decidedly'pleasing feature of the conditions in Samoa during the past year, both from' a medical point of view and -from the point of view of the future prosperity and welfare of Samoa, was the appreciable increase in the birth rate. Although the vital statistics of Samoa are not completed for 1924, Dr. Ritchie estimates a total increase of about three per cent, of the present ponulatmti. The estimated number of deaths is 800.