TUBERCULOSIS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 September 1943, Page 3

TUBERCULOSIS

INCIDENCE IN WAIRARAPA REPORT TO HOSPITAL BOARD. COMBINED ADMINISTRATION PROPOSED. A report on the recent tuberculosis conference at Palmerston North was presented at yesterday afternoon’s meeting of the Wairarapa Hospital Board when the chairman, Mr H. H. Mawley said that the board would be asked to decide whether or not hospital boards in the lower part of the North Island should combine and take over the administration of the sanatoriums at Otaki and Pukeora. A joint committee' consisting of a representative from each board would administer the sanatoriums. The board decided to defer a decision on the matter until the next meeting to enable a report from the secretary and the Medical Superintendent to be considered. Mr Mawley was empowered to take a number of members of the board on an inspection of the sanatoriums. The Managing-Secretary, Mr Norman Lee, said that in the southern portion of the North Island there were 2,750 known cases of pulmonary tuberculosis out of a total population of 530,000. There ‘were also many more unrecorded cases among Maoris. Of the 2,750 known cases 428 were in hospital, 149 in sanatoriums and the remaining 2,000 or so were being treated in their own homes, in most cases by district nurses. The total number of known and unknown cases would be about five times the number of known cases. In the Wairarapa there were 121 known cases and many more unknown cases. Of the known cases 18 were in hospital, 3 were in sanatoriums and 100 were in their own homes. Miss C. McKenny sgid that at the conference the matter of housing had received consideration. Overcrowding was rife among the Maoris. Mr Duncan McGregor said that he had seen Maoris, during shearing time at least, flock into and sleep in a single room when there were plenty of other rooms available in a house. Mr P. R. Welch said that two miles from the Masterton Post Office 21 Maoris were living in a “dog box” of four rooms.