HIGHER DEATH RATE

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 152, 1 March 1939, Page 4

HIGHER DEATH RATE

... . ' « TUBERCULAR MAORI B. j%v. j ;r — ■ ; j INIRECENT YEARS ' gi' T f. SACTOW & RESPONSIBLE - , ,'' ' , C %• The incidence of tubqrculosis among theLvlaoris was the 'subject of an address.-to the native school teachers attending tlie ! ,refr|sher course 'dE'tßbtorua by Dr. H. 13. '.Turbott, of the Health Department. \. t , , if » A " Statistics, • said. Dr. Turbott, revealed Che fact that while the liaori death rate from tuberculosis had! risen .from V 33 per 10,000Vof respective' population in 1917 to 3d.7oin 1937, the European death rate.aMMlie same basis’hat'll decreased from per 10,000 in 1917 to 3.91 in 1937., (These figures p.vere actually under the estimated position,, l'or Maori Y*|al statistics wejre by |no means complete. A personal survey in one county in 1933,.51aved; that there was a Maori death* rate of 49.4 per 10.00(», wife leas it wg.’. oflieially returned iuiithat year as 43:0. I

Tlie type of tuberculosis eriei |mg the ‘ Muni, was predominantly human. I lie incidence of bovine tul ierculgsis bi'ii.'g held to be a negligible i facjjor. A significant fact was that our 90 r r tent, of the cases occurred, among pc-'sells with more than ha4;V ATalbri I :!r od. Tfie incidence fell gehcrajlly i'T >.t heavily upon the f jll-bloh?| d Maori. - ‘ ‘ % Di. Turbott cou.sidered that tlnyx was 'iiuprorSnefit in the Maori . tuherclilosis position, chiefly as the n - suit 'of ’ condi.ttous,. in--tclu'dihg Trad housing,y overcrowding, poverty and hadl diet. Other factors were 'the psychological attitude Of the Maori toward the disease, fatalistic resignation" which militated against reporting the disease “ ail’d ' attempting proper treatment, and the fact that European preventing measures were almost non-operative among Maoris.