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TO COMBAT DISEASE.

HOSPITAL BOARD’S IMPORTANT PROPOSALS. NEW LIGHT ON SLEEPING SICKNESS.. HEALTH DEPARTMENT INDICTED. An 'important departure from the system of health supervision in the district was embodied in a proposal laid before Thursday's meeting of the Palmerston North District Hospital and Charitable Aid Board by Dr E. Whitaker. Pursuant to notice, he moved that all the boroughs in the hospital district bo approached as to whether they arc willing to appoint local medical men as medical officers of health to act with their sanitary committees, subject to the consent of the Public Health authorities being obtained to the arrangement.

Speaking at some length to his motion, Dr. Whitaker pointed to the great need for improving the system of public health investigation in the district. As an instance he qmded the two eases of sleeping sickness which had recently occurred in the district. The public .were very much exercised over this new disease. with the result that the Hoard had wired to the Department asking for an investigation and a report. What had happened .' The Department sent up to I'almeislon a young doctor fresh from Dunedin, who went to the hospital and investigated the case there; and -mb'-equcutly made further investigations regarding the case in town along with the infectious diseases inspector 1 . The visiting official told the house surgeon at the hospital that he had not lime to go to bird on to see into the oilier case, because it was so far off! It seemed absurd, commented Dr. Whitaker,-that the Board should ask for an expert investigator and then for a man to come up only to go back (o Wellington leaving half his work undone because “it was 100 far off." The medical men in (lie district were not satislied with this so-called investigation. Through the courtesy of the relatives ot the deceased they were able to undertake two examinations, of a private nat - ure. As a result ui these it was disclosed that in one ease the condition of the -brain was in a condi• tioas'iieh ;is he had never before'met with in all the hundred.-: of postmortem:'. he had carried out. In the other case of sleeping sickness the examination disclosed tjiiilc dillcrent conditions. The brain was in an entirely different slate. I lie data gathered with regard to these two cases of sleeping sickness opened up an entirely new range of affairs with public health kno-’dedge so far as iiie district was concerned. In the light of this the De-.-i.vtmental explanation that the di.-ea-c wps a remote sequel of the ind'nui/a epidemic was not very reassuring.

EXTRAORDINARY STATE OK AFFAIRS. In Iliis connection if was very interesting (<> nole that the inve-tiga-tion showed lliat (hero was no influenza in Ilia house.- of the deceased and not hy Ilia furthest stretch id! imagination could I lit l two cases be connected with influenza. If they were cmii"' to have cases of such a luyslerimis disease as sleeping sickness investigated by the Department in such a manner, and t'or the Board to apply for and not receive a report of this investigation, it was surely a most extraordinary state of affairs. Continuing, Dr. Whitaker said he had cited these two cases in stt])pori; of Ids contention Unit it was impossible for public health investiga-tion-to he properly earned out under the present system. To this end he had tabled his motion. There was a tremendous trap between having' a trained man in Wellington at the Department and a lay inspector at Palmerston, who was not a modieal man at all. His point was that there should he trained medical men appointed throughout the district to carry on the important work' of scientific health investigation in cases coining under the Board's purview; and the only way to secure these was hy the appointment of resident medical men, at a small salary, t<j act as local medical officers. At present the nearest trained medical official under the Department was in Wellington. The work of investigation was left to a layman in the person of the infectious diseases inspector, who, quite apart from the fact that he was not a medical man, had too much ground to cover. Ho was entrusted with the whole district, comprising several comities. The result was that health investigation in the district t\gis not always true, and never scientific —and science meant aeeuraev. FOUR NEW-DISEASES.

In emphasisin''' the need lev a thorough reorganisation of the system -which obtains in the district. Dr,

Whitaker pointed out that since the war we had got in New Zealand something like three or- four fresh iy,pes of malaria. This was the direct result of returned soldiers coming from Africa, Egypt and other places. Certainly, malaria fever was bound to spread all over New Zealand. He could not see how they could stop it. Only the other day he had observed malaria knits, the breeding ground of which he had' traced to a kerosene tin half full of water standing in a person’s backyard. Dr, Whitaker went on to attack the system of red tape and circumlocution that obtained in the Department, and said that oven if they desired, the Departmental officers could not take strong action, he-

cause the Minister was almost sure to bo immediately invoked by interested parties. Under his proposed scheme the boroughs would be responsible for paying the medical officers under whose control they would be.

The motion was seconded by Mr J. K. Hornblow, who indicated the present state of affairs.

Sir James Wilson commended the proposal as a very practical one, and one which would have his cor-

dial support. At present there was 100 much Departmental talk and not enough action. The appointment of haul I medical ollieers would make for scientific investigation, which was really in a word only accuracy. If thev were going to advance in matters appertaining to health, they would have to lake steps themselves. It was no use relying on the Department, it was no use saying 11ml the local Departmental officer was a health inspector. He was simply a “disinfector!"

Mr Moody: And lie lias got six counties to cover.

Concluding, Sir James Wilson remarked that if the local bodies would only see the necessity for looking after tin* health of the people in the maimer proposed, the feW hundreds the scheme would cost would he iniinilesimal to the benefits to be gained. After further discussion the motion was pul and carried. ■■

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MH19190916.2.2

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2029, 16 September 1919, Page 1

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,076

TO COMBAT DISEASE. Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2029, 16 September 1919, Page 1

TO COMBAT DISEASE. Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2029, 16 September 1919, Page 1

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