MAORI MORTALITY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17948, 28 November 1932, Page 9

MAORI MORTALITY

HIGHER INFANT RATES TOLL OF CHEST COMPLAINTS A sharp increase..in Maori infant mortality is reported by the director-gen-eral of health, Dr. ’M. H. Watt, m a memorandum to district nurses engaged in native welfare work. The necessity of impressing upon Maoris tho desiruM: ity of availing themselves of such facilities for treatment accessible to them, and improving generally their standards of housing, is emphasised in the communication.

“I regret again to report an increase in the number of deaths and in the death rate a thousand live births of .Maori infants under 12 months,” Dr. Watt states. “For the past three years tho Maori infantile mortality rate, has increased from 78.97 a thousand births in 1929, to 88.51 in 1930 and 95.59 in 1931.

“During the first month of life, the mortality is not great, comparing very favorably with, and in some cases being lower than the European rate. In this respect there is no doubt that an improvement can be effected by continuing to impress on the Maori mother the necessity and benefits of ante-natal and post-natal advice and care. It is, however, among infants who survive the first month of life, and particularly after the. third month, that a great improve meiit should be possible.

RAVAGES OF RESPIRATORY DISEASES

“Tho deaths in these groups are caused principally by preventable diseases, the chief of which are respiratory and alimentary. The respiratory group includes death from influenza, whooping cough, bronchitis, all forms of pneumonia and those causes returned as 'colds’ and ‘chest complaints.’ It is in this group that there is the greatest and most immediate need for improvement.”

The memorandum points out that, in tho past seven years, respiratory diseases have' been responsible for more than 40 per cent, of tile total deaths of Maori, infants. A reduction could ho effected only by the continued co-opera-tion of nurses and other interested persons in impressing upon the parents the proper methods of clothing infants, the need for adequate ventilation and the necessity of obtaining skilled medical and nursing attention when necessary.

The greatest obstacles in contending with tuberculosis among Maoris wore the difficulty of having the patients under early medical treatment and! of ensuring suitable housing and proper food for the Maori people as a whole.

Possibly as a consequence, of the return of warm weather after the rain, swarms of small insects, mostly in tlio vicinity of hedges, wore particularly noticeable in the suburbs to-day. TJio insects appeared to take an exceptional liking to the suits and frocks of pedestrians and cyclists, and housewives had a busy time keeping them off washing hung out on the clothesline.