Cancer Kills 70,000 People In Australia In 17 Years.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17905, 22 July 1926, Page 1

Cancer Kills 70,000 People In Australia In 17 Years.

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.—Aus. 'and N.Z. Cable Assn. (Received July 22, 11 a.m.)

MELBOURNE, July 22. Sir Neville Howse, at the opening conference of Ministers of Health of the various States and their medical advisers, said: “The general death rate in Australia is low. The infant mortality rate is low, and the tuberculosis rate is low, but the position in respect to scarlet fever, diphtheria and typhoid, by comparison with other countries, even backward countries, is very unsatisfactory. The typhoid death rate in country districts is still far higher than it should be in view of the good system of local government. “ In respect to cancer, Australia stands at a higher level of death rate than seventeen other countries. There has been a very real and serious increase in cancer mortality, chiefly in cancer of the digestive tract. The proportion of female cancer deaths to total deaths is considerably greater than the proportion of male deaths. “ In the past seventeen years, 70,000 persons in Australia died from cancer alone. During the next ten years a further 70,000 will die from this disease. Regarding puerperal mortality, compared with other countries, Australia takes twelfth place.”