COMBATING GOITRE

Taranaki Daily News, 19 December 1933, Page 2

COMBATING GOITRE

CASES IN NEW SOUTH WALES. NEW ZEALAND’S EXPERIENCE. Sydney, Dec. 1. New Zealand experience has been freely quoted in discussions what have taken place regarding the prevalence of goitre in the so-called “goitre belts” of. New South Wales. Only this week a girl of nine years was admitted to a Sydney hospital suffering severely from the complaint. She came from one of the country districts, where many young girls are afflicted, and where the prevalence of goitre is causing some alarm. The disease affects the health and mentality of those who are attacked, and it is fitting that during health week, now being celebrated, the question of dealing with this scourge of so many inland districts should receive attention.

Many New South Wales country districts are situated in “goitre belts,” which have been described as areas where the water and the soil lack iodine. Goitre also occurs freely in Victoria and in other Australian States, but a medical man stated the other day that the complaint is seen at its worst in New Zealand. He spoke in terms of praise for the research work that had been carried out in the Dominion and said that Australia should benefit by what had been done. For instance, school children had been given iodine in the form of a tasteless sweet, with beneficial results. That could well be tried in Australia, although here there seemed to be some other factor involved. Many people believed that mineral salts,, such as caK cium compounds and phosphates, or vitamins, played a part in the ability of the body to make use of the iodine. .There was ample scope for further research, and Australia should not be behind the rest of the world in fighting what was a very serious complaint. The fact that most cases of endemic goitre in New South Wales occurred in inland districts is regarded as strengthening the opinion that it is one of the penalties mankind pays for forsaking the neighbourhood of the sea and pioneering a new life in the interior. One expert has explained that the home of iodine is the sea, and that it is as vital a human necessity as lime and salt. lodine is blown inland with sea-spray during the gales and storms, but fails to reach inland or sheltered districts. It is therefore advisable to administer iodine by some artificial means, and it was surprising that Australia should not recognise this and so keep pace with other countries who showed a greater concern for the health of the community. It was all very well to hold “health weeks” in the big cities, but it was a grave mistake to neglect the country dis-, tricts and fail to do those obvious things that had been so efficacious elsewhere.