INFECTIOUS DISEASES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 148, 24 May 1934, Page 6

INFECTIOUS DISEASES.

Attention lias been drawn of late by medical men to the fact that New Zealand is at present at the bottom of one of the waves in which infectious diseases occur. If the evidence that has been accumulated over the last few years is reliable, it is not only apparent that the bottom of such a wave has been reached, but there is ground for hope that the serious epidemics experienced in the past will not as frequently occur again. The prevalence of infectious diseases in New Zealand, and their virulence as well, has shown a marked decrease over a long period of years, according to authorities. In its application to later times this fact is of particular interest, since it is a common expectation that the economic depression, with its relative overcrowding of population and hardship, would tend to produce statistics the reverse to what is now the case. It is not in this Dominion alone that this healthy trend is to be noted; Britain is experiencing a similar improvement in conditions. There are a number of factors which contribute to this, such as the change in social conditions, housing, water supply, drainage, factory and school amenities, and environment in general. The marked falling off in the incidence of infectious disease, and the even more marked decrease in the mortality rate, according to Dr. T. McKibbin, Director of the Division of Public Hygiene of the Dominion Health Department, cannot be a matter of mere chance. He supports his contention by citing the fact that diphtheria is the only such disease for which a specific cure has been found. Whatever the main reason for the improvement, the gratifying fact remains that infectious disease hospitals all over the country are practically empty. Apart from the general benefit socially from the reduction noted, there is the point that the economic gain is material. Although there are still, in the broad sense, epidemics of scarlet fever and diphtheria in New Zealand, the treatment of cases is a much less serious problem now than in the old days. The death rate in this Dominion, the director points out, is the lowest in the world, and of the 11,000 deaths that occur each year those from infectious disease form a very small part. The greatest example demonstrated in the trend referred to is typhoid fever. A five-year average taken fifty years ago gave a mortality rate more than forty times that for the five years ended 1932.