Individuals Can Help To Fight Tuberculosis

Chronicle (Levin), 20 June 1949, Page 3

Individuals Can Help To Fight Tuberculosis

Press Assoclationl

(Per

trI«±5UItjNE, June 19. "The Government, Health Department, Hospital Board and other authorities will do their pa-rt in reduci-ng the incidence of this terrible scourge of tuberculosis but whatever may be dOne as a public duty does not' relieve us of our individual responsibilities fort ereating and maintaining eonditions whieh, in themselves, will combat its spread," stated the Prime Minister, Mr. P. Fraser, when speaking on Saturday at the opening of the reeently eompleted additions at the Te! Puia Hospital. The Prime Minister was replying tb Mr. H. D. Reedy who referred to the need for more houses for the Maori people on the East Coast. Mr. Fraser said::th-h"Gdyerh®ien£ wa® fully .aware of the terrible effects which tiib'er^-Qlosis wrought upon the people espeeially in the,- case;.of rahes, iTyhihjt had 'not, ^htough;lon§ b^p0Sttf^,:/>ht|ai3|l edj^a -certhih d6gr^e *bf immuriity>", einpha^ised that th'ev value of any work on ia public basis eould be lost if individuals forgot their personal responsibility for observing precautions" against the spread of the disease. Cleanlmess with food, fresh air and sunshine were elements within the individua-l sphere. It was the wish of the Government that every family be well housed but even where that was not, for obvious reasons, immediately possible, individual measures could be taken to restrict the transmission of the disease. During his visit to the Coast, Mr. Fraser met Party supporters in th'ree centres and was the guest at a Party gathering in Gisborne on Saturday night.