ENDEMIC GOITRE

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 1186, 8 December 1924, Page 9

ENDEMIC GOITRE

DEFICIENCY OF lODINE, RESEARCHES OF PROFESSOR HERCUS. At the annual meeting of the Now Zealand branch of the British Medical Association held in Auckland in March last, a paper was read by Professor C. E. Iloreus, Otago Medical School, giving the result of his research work in connection with tho iodine content of soils and vegetables m various parts of New Zealand. These researches have an important bearing on the prevalence of goitre in certain districts. In order to enable Professor Herons to pursue bin inquiries, a grant was made by the Government, and it is understood (says a Wellington paper) bhat ho will shortly furnish a report to the Minister of Health, giving the further remits of his investigations. Dr. Ada G. Paterson, Director, Division of School Hygiene, Health Department, also gave to the conference of the British Medical Association the results of the observations and preventive treatment carried out by the school medical officers during the past few yeans. It will now be possible to map out pretty definitely tho chief areas in the Dominion where goitre is endemic, and see how far those areas coincide with the iodine deficiency in soil and vegetation us disclosed by Profeasor llcreus's researches. It line been demonstrated that a deficiency of iodine is the principal, if not the role, cause of endemic or simple goilre. For two or three years past the school medical service of the Health Department has carried on preventive and curative work by the administration of minute doses of iodine preparations to school children (with the consent of their parents) with satisfactory results. Facilities are now provided by which the children in all schools in -endemic areas may obtain treatment.

According to reports received, the whole of the South Island is more or less affected, the areas in which the disease is most prevalent being in and about. Christchurch city, the lower Clutha, Taieri, and Blenheim districts. In the North Island, on the other hand, the provincial districts of Auckland and Hawke’s Bay are reported to be fairly free from goitre, but the disease is rather prevalent in the Ilutt Valley, Wairarapa, and Wanganui-Taranaki districts.

RECOMMENDATION OF B.M.A. The New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association recently urged the Government to introduce legislation under tho Sale of Food and Drums Act which would insure that sufficient iodine to protect from endemic goitre shall be introduced into the table salt imported into this country. Although this method of supplying iodine has been adopted with success in Swittzerland and other places where goitre is prevalent, it is understood that the method now most favoured is the administration of a chocolate tablet containing ten milligrams of iodine in the form of an organic acid. It is considered by some medical authorities that this method is more scientific and accurate than the use of iodized table salt. Most encouraging testimony to the success of the anti-goitre campaign lias come from Switzerland, the United States, and other countries. The valuable work done by Mrs. Ilercus, Dronnan, and Baker, and by the New Zealand Department of Health has been recognised by Dr. IV. J. Mayo, of the famous Mayo Clinic, and by British medical journals. Dr. ,J. Wheatley, one of tho British health officers, in a recent report, outlines the steiis being taken in parts of England to reduce the amount of goitre. It lias been found, he states, that in goitrous districts the soil, vegetables, animals, and the water are all deficient ill iodine, and goitre cun be prevented by the addition of minute quantities to tbe water or food—an amount equal to one grain a year for each person. Lie says: “There are certain difficulties which militate against the adoption of the water supply as the vehicle for iodine. The giving of iodine tabloids ro school children is a comparatively easy method, nud for this reason it may be the one that will be adopted in the first instance, but it dues noi deal with tho whole problem. A table salt has now been prepared, and will, I understand, soon be put on the market, containing the proper amount of iodine, so that- when it is consumed in ordinary amounts, the person will take about one grain in a year._ This is a very simple way of prescribing iodine in districts were goitre is pievalcnt, and, judging by the results in Switzerland, it should practically abolish this disease."