PREVALENCE OF GOITRE

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3669, 23 July 1927, Page 3

PREVALENCE OF GOITRE

TO BE FOUND IN 89 PER CENT OF GIRLS.

Christchurch, Last Night

In a report presented to the Canterbury Education Board to-day Dr. Elinor Baker McLaglin, the Education Department’s health inspector, stated that on a recent visit to the Christchurch Girls’ High School she found goitre in 89 per cent, of the girls, and in 79 per cent, of the cases the goitre was plainly visible. In only a few cases had any attempt been made at treatment.

The doctor adds: “The tragedy of this apathy lies in the fact that each succeeding generation will get worse. In 200 years Canterbury will be like Switzerland where they have thousands of Cretin imbeciles due to thyroid degeneration through successive generations.” The doctor insists that prevention is simple by the use of iodised salt and that this should: be used not pnly by the child from infancy but by the mother before the birth •of the child.

She says that already in Christchurch a. -.number of babies have been 'born with goitre. She further says that broadly speaking all New Zealand except the Taranaki and Auckland province north of Mercer is goitre-bearing in varying degrees.