THE Temuka Leader TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1922. HEALTH COMMISSION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 10361, 5 September 1922, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1922. HEALTH COMMISSION.

• The Government has set up a Committee to investigate the incidence of venereal disease in the Dominion and to report on the best methods that should be taken to stamp the disease completely out. No doubt the report will also make recommendations towards modification or amelioration of the inroads made by the disease. It were better, however, to deal wholly with the total eradication of the evil, rather than with amelioration of its results. There is no question of the seriousness of the menace. At the chief there are clinics for the treatment of sufferers, and we have accurate figures recorded. Thus, for instance, at Dunedin there have been ,337 attendances for the last two years, of, which there were 150 last year. Chiefly men ( attended these clinics, as women were averse to having treatment at a public institution. The great point under discussion at present, and on which the Com-1 miUeo is receiving evidence, is ! whether venereal disease should ! be compulsorily notifiable. Doc- j tors are not agreed on this point, j many thinking that if notifiea- | tion were made compulsory, the ; treatment of the disease would be ; driven underground to a greater j extent than it is at present. Doe- j tors in their evidence suggest the | education of our youth in our se- i condary schools as a means of; combatting the trouble. While j this could do no harm, we are i still faced with the question,! “Why not make notification and i treatment compulsory?’' if as ex- | perts state the disease can be ah-; solutely eradicated in one genera- > tion. .Apart from doctors, the | Society for the Protection of I Women and Children in Dunedin, i through its chairman, states that! with one exception, it had come, to the conclusion that notifiea- i tion was necessary. The awful-1 ness of the results of the disease j oa child life is beyond question. 1 In Australia, in some States, they j have a law for compulsory uoti-1 fication, but it has been allowed j to remain a dead letter. There j is no use of us having a similar j law if there are to be similar re-! suits. In its 1 throughout the Dominion the I Committee will have gained a mass of useful iiuormation which : should enal.de our legislaiors to divide how host to deal wiih the matter, hut we hope they will judge with candour and not ho swayed by maudlin seniimen•alism.