DISEASE IN SAMOA

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 12024, 30 December 1924, Page 6

DISEASE IN SAMOA

DOCTORS’ WINNING BATTLE HOOKWORM AND YAWS WILL SOON BE ELIMINATED, DR RITCHIE’S REPORT. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, December 29. A review of health conditions in Samoa and tho work done during the past year was given by Dr T. K. Ritchie, Chief (Medical Officer of Samoa, who arrived by the Tofua on a three months’ bolidiay visit to New Zealand. Dr -Ritchie stated that the fight against tropical diseases was bearing good results, andl 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 villa-gee, and the natives are becoming more alive to the benefits of Western medicines and Western sanitation. The general health of the people cannot. bqi improve.” INJECTIONS FOR YAWS. For the past four yeare Dr Ritchie and his assistants have been waging wa-r with the hookworm and yaws diseases, and now the results of the<r battle are beginning to show. During 29 months since free treatment was brought into vogue 60,000 injections have been given for yaws alone in Western Samoa. Yaws is a tropical disease, very prevalent in the South Pacific. On the average three injections are ,required for each case, and from, 16,000 to 20,000 cases have been treated out of a population of some 34,000. PREVALENCE OF HOOKWORM. Dr Ritchie sa-id that oyer 90 per cent, of the natives had been’ proved to suffer from the hookw-mm disease, that resulted "in anaemia and general debility. THey were treating the hookworm on the lines followed by the Rockefeller Foundation, and these methods were proving eminently successful. “We consider'that we have these twb diseases well under control,” addfid Dr Ritchie. “At the present rate of extension they should be almost elminated, in a year or two.” BIRTHRATE INCREASING. A decidedly pleasing feature of the conditions in "Samoa during the past year, both from the medical point of view and from the point of view of the future prosperity and welfare of Samoa, is the appreciable increase in the birth rate. Although vital statistics of Samoa are Sot completed, for 1924. Dr Ritchie estimates a total increase of about 3 per cent, of the present population; estimated! number of deaths is 00.