Health Problems in Pacific
p. 36 · Read in the full issue
Pacific
THE Problem of Health in the Pacific was the subject of a recent address by Professor Harvey Sutton (School cf Tropical Medicine, Sydney University).
Quinine, needed for treatment of malaria, had come mostly from Java, as well as now from South America. But. said the lecturer, it could grow quite well in Northern Queensland if it were deve loped there along similar lines as in Southern India.
The lecturer said the prevention and cure of hookworm are known, and this
disease is avoidable, with suitably organ ised health services.
Leprosy was now mainly centred in tropical regions, and it was making its way into Polynesia particularly at Nauru, where a third of the population had become infected. Leprosy could be cured by the injection of drugs, but is to some extent prevented and cured by an improved diet and better hygiene.
Tropical ulcers depended upon both in fection and dietetic deficiency. In fact, dietetic deficiency is one of the main problems confronting medical science in combating the tropical diseases.
Professor Harvey Sutton said that Sydney University should be the focal point of study, investigation and survey, in connection with the problem of health in the Pacific. Australians should con sider themselves responsible for looking after the health of natives in the nearer territories, such as New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Melanesia as a whole.
In New Guinea there should be one doctor for each 10,000 people, and one native assistant for every thousand people. We should, therefore, supply 120 doctors and 1,200 native assistants. The native assistants could well be trained at Sydney University. Although the Papuan natives are not as advanced as the Poly nesians, and consequently training would be somewhat difficult in the initial stages, there was great scope for the training of natives as medical assistants.
The problems of diet should rest in the hands of trained agriculturalists and veterinary officers, working in close co operation with the various adminis
trations.