MAORIS AND T.B.

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20095, 15 November 1939, Page 6

MAORIS AND T.B.

EAST COAST CASES i TREATMENT IN HUTS JUSTIFIED BY RESULTS SYSTEM TO BE EXTENDED “Results have been such that the Department of Health has secured an appropriation to extend the scheme of providing huts for certain types of tubercular cases among the Maori people on the East Coast and elsewhere. One of the extensions proposed is to be made in the Wairoa district, and more huts are to be pro-

vided for cases in Poverty Bay and on the East Coast,” said Dr. M. H. Watt, Director-General of Health, discussing with a pressman to-day the scheme of treatment and supervision for Maori sufferers from tuberculosis, inaugurated on tile Coast three years ago.

The scheme was not an independent one, Dr. Watt explained, but fell within the general scope of the department’s campaign to reduce the incidence of the disease. The campaign included as its main features the maintenance of sanatoria and the provision of tubercular blocks at the different district hospitals, the latter serving as clearing-houses for tubercular cases. Home Treatment Factors Those for whom sanatorium treatment was necessary and available were sent on to sanatoria, and other eases were kept under the -direct control of hospital medical staffs, especially where they required heavy nursing attention. Others again were permitted to receive treatment in their homes, where conditions were suitable or -could be made suitable. In the cases of Maoris who could benefit from home treatment, 'the department had instituted the hutment scheme, by which speciallydesigned huts were supplied for the occupation of the casesIt was realised that in the average Maori household it was not possible to set aside a room for the particular use of the ‘'patient, and hence the decision to furnish the hutments, in which cases could secure the degree of isolation necessary to prevent transmisison of the disease to contacts.

There were 24 cases now being treated in these hutments in the East Cape health district, and an essential feature of the system was close supervision by district nurses and by the medical officer of health for the district. Without this supervision it would be unreasonable to expect good results; but he was happy to say, said Dr. Watt, that what had been accomplished to date had justified an extension of the scheme. He added that similarly good results had been noted in tire South Auckland district, where also the hutment scheme had been introduced.

Cottage Scheme in Tennessee

The Director-General mentioned, in response to a further question, that during his recent tour abroad he had found in Tennessee, U.S.A., the beginnings of a plan to provide cottages for tubercular sufferers. Funds had been provided by the Rockefeller Foundation for making a complete survey of the tuberculosis cases of that area, and the cottage scheme was one of the resulting recommendations. In the case of that district, however, there was no central clearinghouse for such cases, such as is provided in the main hospitals of New Zealand. Tubercular investigation abroad, especially in some parts of the United States and in Sweden, was well in advance of anything New Zealand had been able to do as yet. The testing of contacts of all established cases was one of the latest developments, and in Sweden, for instance, if a case developed in a factory, .all the men in the department concerned were tested, as well as the known contacts.

British Columbia Precautions Another feature of tuberculosis precautions which Dr. Watt found in British Columbia was the practice of testing by standard means every underground worker in the State, this process being repeated annually. The advantages of this system were obvious.

Working with larger populations, older countries perhaps were better able to co-ordinate their research and practical nursing. The magnitude of their communities encouraged largescale planning and practice. On the other hand, educational means were providing good results, as for instance in the case of diphtheric immunisation in the United States. There the proportion of children immunised against diphtheria while of tender ages was much larger than in New Zealand, and diphtheric infection had been much reduced.

Discussing the organisation of health services in New Zealand, as compared With those of other countries, Dr. Watt stated that he had found many points in which New Zealand was behind other countries, but the organisation of rural health services was considered to be better in this country than id some of the most advanced communities of the Old World. He had described the Dominion system to health authorities in other lands, and had been gratified by their compliments upon its completeness.