CASES OF DIABETES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4648, 14 January 1924, Page 1

CASES OF DIABETES.

DEATH STATISTICS OF LITTLE VALUE. MANUFACTURE OF INSULIN ®IN DOMINION. “ The time must come very snortiy when the health authorities of the Dominion will have to.consider very sej iously the question of manufacturing insulin in this country,” writes a contributor to the Christchurch- “ Press.” Just at the present juncture it is probable that the supply which can be obtained from tl|Q ; Commonwealth laboratories is about sufficient for our needs here, but thisstate of affairs cannot continue indefinitely.” In the writer’s opinion the sooner thingis are got in train for the manufacture, of this valuable material in New Zealand the . better. The first thing that will be .needed, he says, is a careful, census of the number of : people suffering from diabetes in the Dominion. “At present,” he continues, “ we have but the haziest notiep. qf the incidence of this disease. The statistics which can be obtained from public hospitals will give us an approximate idea, but only a portion of severe cases would go to the hospitals., This leaves us with no reliable method of estimating the number of mild and severe cases of dia-~ botes treated by private practitioners outside the hospitals.

“The statistics of deaths in this country are also more or,, lesis useless for .estimation purposes, for a person jnight be .suffering from, diabetes and yet die from pneumonia, or fiom some other acute, disease, or through accident. Once we knew. fairly definitely thq number of , cases of diabetes in New Zealand it would then be possible to. decide whether Or not it was an economic proposition to make insulin here or import it from Australia. If it were decided to manufacture it here—and there is a wealth of the..necessary raw material—there won hl be ,nq particular difficulty in carrying out ,the process, for it is a comparatively simple one, and one that our, chemists could easily .handle. No elaborate buildings nor apparatus . would be necessary, and, though a qualified man would have to be in charge of the work, his assistants; could quickly be trained to do routine work which is the main part of. the process.

“So far, on account of its being more easily obtain in bulk, ox pancreas is being used chiefly for the •manufacture of insulin, but the material can also be extracted in large amounts from the pancreas of the sheep and the pig.. Tn fact, pig’s pancreas has given even larger yields than that of cattle.”