INDIA’S MILLIONS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20108, 29 March 1928, Page 10

INDIA’S MILLIONS

COMBATTING DISEASE PRESENT-DAY MEDICAL WORK [ Special “Chronicle’* Service. ] AUCKLAND, March 28The problems facing those responsible for the health of India’s millions greatly impressed Dr T. J. Hughes, District Medical Officer of Health, who returned to Auckland by the liner Marama from Sydney after attending a conference of medical officers in India, organised by the League of Nations. Large religious gatherings were the greatest danger that has to be contended with from the health point of view, Dr Hughes said. These gatherings were breeding-grounds for epidemics such as cholera; and when the natives returned to their homes they very often carried the disease with them, spreading it with disastrous results.

“Take the Bengal province alone,” said Dr Hughes. “There there is a population of 47,000,000 living in 84,748 villages, and the stupendous task of dealing with cholera epidemics can be appreciated.” Opportunities were afforded to the delegates of gaining first-hand knowledge of every phase of public health work carried out in India, and the measures taken for the control of infectious diseases, infant welfare, mosquito control work, and institutes which manufactured various vaccines for innoculation and vaccination purposes were of particular interest. The Haftkind Institute, in which the plague commission solved the question of the transmission of plague through rats and rat fleas, and where antiplague vaccine and anti-venomous serum against snake bites were made, were of great interest, Dr Hughes said. To date, the Institute had turned out 30.000.000 doses of anti-plague vaccine. Dr Hughes indicated that religious beliefs and customs restricted somewhat the activities of the health officers, of whom there were hundreds. These customs, in a large measure, seemed responsible for India’s large infantile mortality rate.