TUBERCULOSIS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5315, 20 August 1928, Page 2

TUBERCULOSIS.

DOMINION’S LOW DEATH-RATi:,. HEALTHY’ HOME JNVIRONMENT. In the a.unual report of the Department of Public Health for the year ended March 31, 1928, the Direc-tor-General of Health, (Dr. T. H. AValentine) makes the following comment ip dealing with all forms of tuberculosis :— “New Zealand has the l'owe s t deathrate from tuberculosis in the world, and the rate per 10,000 of mean population has reduced from 7.54 in 1918 to 4.86 last year.

“Of the total of 668 deaths in 1927. 533 were assigned to pulmonary tuberculosis. showing a considerable reduction from 592 recorded in 1926. There were 135 deaths ftom other forms, of this disease, comprising tuberculosis - meningitis ami peritonitis, and tuberculosis of the bonjes,. joints, glands, etc. A small proportion of. these latter deaths', particlarly those qf children, are deemed by recognised authorites to be possibly due to infection from the cqw, an.di bacteriological testy of milk-supplies in Some New Zealand cities have shown the milk-suppb’ to ba remarkably free from bqvine tubercle. The majority qf these latter deaths and all, or nearly all, deaths fifoin pulmonary tuberculosis are regarded as due to the human type of tubercle, presumably conveyed from human sources.

“Although the death-rate from tubei'iculosis is reducing., it still takes sixth place as a cause of death in New Zealand and disables many mqre than it kills.

“Probably New Zealand qwes her comparatively low tuberculosis deathrate tq healthy home, sqhool an)d workplace environment, .nourishing fooff. UM‘ excellent sunny climate, and the Parity of overcrowding. But there exceptional instances of bad Habits an. environment which shqukl not exist. Given good food and cleanly habits if everyone slept and lived v’ith wide-open win.dows in ample' cubic space there would soon be a marked reduction in the tuberculosis death-rate. When a case of consumption is treated ip a dwelling 'it is specially necessary for, all inmates to live the opensair life. That is the practice in sanatoria,. Most persons contract tuberculosis and recover. It is only t'he specially weak or those with bad living habits who succumb.”