CONTROL OF T.B.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 271, 16 November 1945, Page 3

CONTROL OF T.B.

MEDICAL OFFICER’S WORK

WANGANUI HOSPITAL AREA

Tuberculosis officers in New Zealand were concerned at the danger of infection caused by persons with this disease dying in their own homes, said Dr. W. A. Priest, T.B. officer to ths Wanganui Hospital Board, in a special report at the monthly meeting yesterday. ' He added that this question was discussed at a recent confetence in Wellington, attended by tuberculosis officers from different parts of the Dominion. A resolution drawing public attention to these conditions also stressed the need for hospital boards making adequate provision for chronic infectious cases. Statistics for New Zealand showed that last year 472 people died from tuberculosis in private homes, and 491 died in hospitals. In the area under the jurisdiction of the West Coast Hospital Boards Joint Sanitorlum Committee, there were 54 deaths in private homes and 48 in hospitals. This area included Taranaki, South Taranaki. Wanganui and the Manawatu. Referring to the incidence of T.B. in the Wanganui Hospital Board’s area. Dr. Priest said there were 421 notified cases last year. In addition, there was a large number of minor cases of infection which were not actually of any danger to the community. The Patea, Waitotara, Waverley Kai Iwi and Maxwell districts had 81 known cases last year, 1 many of them Maoris, while there were 120 cases in the Wanganui country area, and 66 in the Raetihi. Pipiriki, Wanganui River area. The Marton district, Including Ratana Pa, had 45 cases, and Wanganui city (European only) contributed 91 cases. For the purpose of combating the disease in the Wanganui Hospital Board's area, portions of the Patea and Hawera Hospital districts were included. Dr. Priest added that a considerable number of infection cases did not necessarily develop. This was the type of case isolated at home, and it was necessary to follow up contacts of known infectious cases so as to check I any spread of the disease. He did not believe, however, that Maoris had less resistence to the disease than Euro, peans. Much of the tuberculosis among Maoris was due to overcrowding and . conditions under which they were living.

Last year travelling through the Wanganui Hospital Board’s district and the outskirts of other hospital areas, he attended clinics and had seen 1030 patients, or persons that were suspects or contacts. From April to September of this year he had seen 864 cases in the same area. Clinics were also held at the Wanganui Hospital. “I have to see a large number of people who are not actually tuberculosis cases, but this is a disease that you have got to go out and look for,” Dr. Priest added. When the new sanatorium to be provided jointly by the hospital boards concerned, was available for the West Coast (North Island) area, much of the accommodation difficulty would bo overcome, but beds would still be needed in hospitals for T.B. patients. There was the type of chronic case that never recovered and was unsuitable for treatment in sanatoriums, recognised as places where patients did get well. Because of a waiting list for beds in sanatoriums and hospitals he had 16 cases standing by, said Dr. Priest. Some of these were of the type that could do with a period of bed rest in hospital and others were suitable for sanatorium treatment.