GOITRE DANGER

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 104, 23 July 1927, Page 28

GOITRE DANGER

DOCTORS’ WARNING 89 PER CENT. IN SCHOOLS (Special to THE SUN.) CHRISTCHURCH, Friday. In a report presented to the Canterbury Education Board this morning, Dr. Baker McLaglan, the Education Department's health inspector, emphasised very strongly the danger that existed through the prevalence of goitre in schools. The report stated that over the last seven years statistics remained practically steady, and it predicted that, in about 200 years, at the present rate. Canterbury would be like Switzerland, where there were thousands of cretin imbeciles due to thyroid degeneration through successive generations. “When Dr. Hercus and I visited the Girls’ High School.” said Dr. McLag-' lan, “we saw 300 or 400 high school pupils, and found 89 per cent. of goitre, of which 79 per cent was plainly visible. In addition, we interrogated each girl to see what, if any, treatment she had taken, either preventive or curative. About a quarter only had done anything. Of these most were at the Girl’s High School hostel, and had had iodised salt there for about a year. “A few with marked goitre had been to a doctor or chemist and got something to rub on, or a bottle of medicine which they had used for a few weeks. Not more than five girls in all had made anything worth calling a reasonable attempt at prevention. “Of course, most of the goitres at that age are already well established, and ‘prevention’ is out of the question. To try and cure goitre which is well established at 15 is much like chasing an express train. “The thyroid gland begins secreting in the sixth month of pre-natal life, and if there is a shortage of the essential iodine in the mother's blood the thyroid may enlarge before birth. Already in Christchurch a number of babies are born with goitre, therefore prevention must be begun before birth by supplying the infinitesimal amounts of iodine required in the mother’s diet.”