Sickness Should Be Social Crime

Chronicle (Levin), 12 August 1948, Page 5

Sickness Should Be Social Crime

WELLINGTON, August 11. "The time will come when sickness will he regarded as ^ social crime. When that time comes, we will go through life, not with the idea of slithering away from illness, but with the thought always of eujoying positive health. ' ' These conraients were made by Dr. rharles Burns in an address on the ", Social Aspeets of Medical Treatiiient" delivered t'o tlie Wellington braneh of the Royal Society last niglit. Dr. Burns" eniphasised the need for cleanliness and good social conditions if outbreaks of disease were to be avoided, ttnd drew attention to many ways in Which tlie man in the street could ensure that lie kept in the best of health without having to consult a doctor. Slum dwellings and unsanitary conditions brought disease, said Dr. Burns. Tubereulosis, for example, was frerpiently a by-produet of bad houses, poor food, ahd dark • rooms. Just as bnjor epidemics were caused by bad social conditions, so minor epidemics resulteil from a lowering of hygiene standards. Outbreaks of dysenterv in the forces had been traced to dirty cooks or to men who had beeome dirty in their h'abits. Dr. Burns said he was always aniazed when-he heard people say they had "got the summer sickness that's going about. " Summer sickness would dis- . appear like the morning mists if people would only realise that, to avoid it, they had only to malce sure their food was clean, that their liaiuls were clean, and that there was a hi^hrstandard of personal cleanliness in the eommunity. Goitre could be abolishecl by the introduction of iodised salt into the eommunity. People were careless about these niatters and didn't bother to use the salt. There was not the sliglitest need for a single child .to have goitre in New Zealand so long as that simple rule "was observed. Dental caries was very prevalent in New Zealand. It :could be avoided simply by making . children eat 'hard l'oods, which would give their jaws some exercise, instead of allowing them to eat so many soft foo'ds. Duodenal ulcers were caused simuly by overwork, hard living and insufiicient rest. In everv disease there was some factor to consider which had .nothing to do with gerins. To obtain a correct diagnosis, a patient 's living conditions must be inquired into because they had some bearing on his disease. There were a liuge number of diseases a doctor could not diagnose correetly because he did not know sufiicient about a patient 's living conditions and because he did noto.have time to investigate them.