THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1932. THE HEALTH OF CHILDREN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21537, 8 January 1932, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1932. THE HEALTH OF CHILDREN.

The school child of to-day has more cause to be grateful • than had his parents before him for the attention devoted to the question of his health. The annual reports of Sir George Newman, Chief Medical Officer to the Board of Education of England and Wales, furnish from year to year a good deal of information of a kind that should be useful for the guidance of educational authorities elsewhere. Public expenditure is being- closely scrutinised in these times, and a question concerning the return received by the taxpayer for the cost of education is not infrequently 1 raised. To a point of view that is generally disregarded Sir George Newman in his latest survey directs attention in his reminder that the original reason for the introduction of a system of medical supervision of school children was that it might fit the children to receive benefits from the education provided out of public money. Health in the school room is considered important to-day on wider grounds than that, and the results brought about by medical supervision are not measured in any particular degree from the standpoint of scholastic aptitude. “ Repair on a vast scale ” is the description applied by Sir George Newman to the modern school medical system. The outstanding aim is to ensure that the schools shall not merely turn out an annual army of boys and girls “ who some few years hence will overcrowd the waiting room of the insurance doctor, fill the tuberculosis sanatorium, and swell the hospital waiting list.” This spells effort to strengthen the foundations of health, and this objective is pursued along the lines of cleanliness, improvement in nutrition, physical exercise, open air education, and the teaching of hygiene. There has been a revolution, it is stated, in cleanliness and dress, which has been conducive to an improvement in health. In the matter of nutrition the recorded improvement is very marked. In 1907 about 10 per cent, of the children in the London schools were found to be suffering from malnutrition, but to-day the figure is down to 1 per cent. This important result is attributed partly to supplementary school feeding but partly, also —which seems more material —to a general improvement in the care of the child at home. Of one thing we may be perfectly sure, writes Sir George Newman; “the school children of the country are better nourished than at any previous time of which we have record.” Enthusiasts for what is termed open air education will find satisfaction in some observations on that subject in this report. Sir George Newman speaks of the introduction of the open air school as an institution for the improvement of the health of the debilitated child as a sensible, and even necessary, method of healing for a particular type of child, and then goes on to say, “ But what is required is mere sunlight and open air for every child, sick or well.” It would probably be safe to go a little further and say that more sunlight and open air for everybody would be conducive to a higher standard of national health. A discussion on that point, however, could hardly fail to introduce the interminable topic of climate. It is instructive to read that 80 per cent, of the building plans submitted to the Boai’d of Education at Home for approval now include proposals for throwing open to the outside air whole portions of the class rooms, and for the admission of more sunlight than was formerly deemed necessary. Some 70 per cent, of the children attending school are classed as normal, and it is Sir George Newman’s opinion that the kind of advance represented in the increasing application of the principles of the open-air school leads to a greater effect in the long run than building open air schools for sick and diseased children,' important as that may be. It is worth noting that out of £4,000,000 of expenditure on the health of school children in England and Wales in 1930 as much as £1,600,000 was for the exclusive benefit of 52,000 children in special schools. It is claimed that since the school medical service started in Great Britain 24 years ago a great improvement has been brought about, due largely to influences outside the service, yet springing naturally from it. A marked increase in health, cleanliness, happiness and mental efficiency in the school room really means that the attention and training accorded the young people are transforming the whole outlook for the nation’s health.

INFECTIOUS DISEASES. It was observed by the Directorgeneral of Health in his annual report last year that the infectious disease rates had been remarkably low. It is very satisfactory to learn that another annual assessment has brought no evidence of a rebound from this encouraging state of affairs. Dr M'Kibbin, Director of Public Hygiene for the Dominion, has supplied figures, ifidced, which show that the decrease in the notifications of infectious diseases recorded last year has been continued. The total number of notifications for 1931 was 5445, as compared with 7238 for 1930, and 11,335 for 1929. The shrinkage in two years has, it will be seen, been very substantial, amounting to over 50 per cent. Dr M'Kibbin does not over-state the position in saying of this that it represents a budget balance of no mean magnitude in the direct saving of notification fees paid out, lessened inspection costs, and reduced hospital maintenance expenses, as well as in the saving to households in immunity from unfortunate visitations, while in the restriction of the crippling effects of some of these diseases ultimate benefit to the general public health may be confidently anticipated. Of the common infectious diseases, affecting particularly the younger generation, scarlet fever seems to have the distinction of being the most prevalent. Whooping cough and measles are not compulsorily notifiable, and though the former was prevalent in the Dominion in 1930 the number of deaths caused by it was low in comparison with previous epidemics. Of scarlet fever 2244 cases were notified in 1930, as compared with 4848 in 1929 and 6127 in 1928. In the two years preceding that again the figures were, however, quite moderate. But whereas in 1930 fatal results attended 16 out of 2244 cases of scarlet fever the record of diphtheria was considerably worse, there being 58 deaths—inclusive of those due to croup—in 1440 cases in 1930, and 92 deaths in 1687 notified cases in 1929. Information concerning the prevalence of this malady during the past twelve months is not yet available, but it is apparent that it still occupies an unfortunate prominence among the more common infectious complaints, and exacts a toll which renders it most desirable that it should be more effectually counteracted. In his report last year the Director-general of Health observed that there was every reason to believe that the number of deaths from diphtheria could be reduced if parents would avail themselves of the facilities to hand to have their children protected by toxin antitoxin or toxoid. Typhoid notifications numbered 149 in 1930, with seven deaths, as compared with nearly double and more than double that number, with corresponding mortality, over several previous years. It is to be hoped that this reduction has been maintained. There is interest in the official comment that the average death rate from typhoid fever for the period 1926-30 was approximately 40 times less than a similar average taken 50 years ago. It may be assumed that the fall in the incidence of infectious diseases reflects very favourably the. general health of the community. An outbreak of infantile paralysis in two of the Australian States at the present time has assumed disquieting dimensions, but there is no record of a visitation of this distressing malady in- New Zealand. The absence of serious epidemics of late is a matter upon which the community may congratulate itself from every point of view. And so far as this represents a return for official care and vigilance, together with enlarged public understanding, it may be regarded as of very satisfactory national significance.