DOMINION'S HEALTH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21967, 26 November 1934, Page 11

DOMINION'S HEALTH

RESISTANCE TO DISEASE PREVENTION AND TREATMENT RECORD LOW DEATH RATE [by telegraph—own correspondent] ROTORUA, Sunday The efficacy of measures taken ill New Zealand to safeguard the public health was emphasised by the Minister of Health, the Hon. J. A. Young, when speaking yesterday at an official ceremony at the iting George V. Hospital, which has been handed over to the Board. "We have in New Zealand a Do-minion-wide hospital system with liberal provision for treatment of the sick," said Mr. Young. "Some critics inne said we make too liberal provision, but with this 1 do not agree. Lives are saved and sickness curtailed when v the sick have comparatively easy access to hospitals. I would emphasise, too, the progress made by hospital boards, when developing the social side of their work, in preventing disease. It costs, less to take steps to prevent disease than to provide treatment. As one example, the activities of the Health Department, the Plunket Society and hospital boards in developing pre-natal clinics have had an important effect in reducing maternal and infantile mortality. "In New Zealand we are proud of our relatively favourable position in respect of vital statistics and of health records generally, and there is little doubt that our hospitals play a definite part in making such results possible. "It is gratifying to be able to record," said the Minister, "that there is no evidence on statistical grounds which woUld indicate that the health of the New Zealand people has been in any way impaired by the economic depression. Last year, for instance, the death rate of 7.98 per 1000 was the lowest so far recorded; the death rate from tuberculosis reached a new low level; the infantile mortality rate, while showing a slight rise on the previous year, is still lower than in anv other country; there was a low incidence of infectious disease and a decrease in the proportion of persons under treatment in public hospitals.

"It is also gratifying to know that during the present year there lias been a still further decline in the incidence of notifiable infectious diseases. Thus for the nine months ending September, 1934, there have been notified 2300 cases of infectious disease, 588 fewer than for the same period of last year. Tuberculosis, especially, is a disease of bad housing and faulty nutrition. For the nine months just mentioned there were 40 fewer notifications of this disease than for the corresponding period last year. In view of the difficult times we lia*e passed through it is encouraginc to learn that our population's resistance to disease is apparently being maintained at a high standard."