AUSTRALIA’S HEALTH

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 22 July 1926, Page 5

AUSTRALIA’S HEALTH

GENERAL DEATH RATE LOW. SCOURGE OP CANCER . UNFA .YOU LIABLE F MATURES. BY CABLE—PRE3S ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. Receiv edi 10,15 a.m. to-day. MELBOURNE, July 22. Sir Neill,a Howse, at the opening of the conference, ot Ministers: of Itealth of the various states and their medical advisers, .said that the general death rate in Australia .is low, the infant mortality rate is low. the tuberculosis rate is low, 'but the position in. respect to (scarlet lever, diphtheria and typhoid by comparison with other countries, even .backward countries, was very unsatisfactory. The typhoidi death rata in tihe country districts was .still far higher than it .should he, in view of the good .system of local Government. ,l.u respect to cancer, Australia, stands at a higher Level of death rate than seventeen other eounttie.s. There had been a very real and a 'serious increase in cancer .montality, chiefly an canter of the digestive tract, llhe proportion of deaths of females from cancer to total deaths is .considerably greater than the proportion of deaths of males, lit the paish 17 yeans 70,000 persons in Australia died from cancer alone, and during ithe next ten years a further 70,000 will die from, this disease. Regarding .puerperal mortality, compared with other countries, ■ •■tabes twelfth place.