"170 East"

Imaginary Line Separates Disease Zones in Remarkable Way

“mHIS remarkable meridian,” the 170 J. degrees East, was dealt with by Sir Charles Hercus, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Otago University, in a lecture to the Science Congress on “New Zealand’s responsibility for medical re search in the South-west Pacific” (reports the Wellington “Post”).

“The 170th meridian is the malaria base-line.” he said. “To the west of the line, malaria constitutes a major public health problem, but to the east there is no malaria. For some reason still un known, this meridian marks the limit of the spread of the anopheles (the malaria carrying mosquito).”

This line, he said, also separated the form of filarla (the germ causing ele phantiasis) found to the west from the form found to the east. Tropical ulcers, common to the west of longitude 170 E, did not occur to the east. The reasons remain obscure.

On the other hand, yaws, leprosy, and tuberculosis were as common to the east as to the west of this remarkable meri dian. Hookworm was widely prevalent, and skin diseases were common. The area presented a fruitful field for the study of endemic goitre, dental caries, and other nutritional problems. Anaemia, diabetes, and epidemic dropsy were common in the Indian women of Fiji. These com plaints presented a field of practical en< deavour for New Zealand science.

Sir Charles Hercus said that in 1946 New Zealand entered into an agreement with the United Kingdom to form a South

Pacific Health Service to serve Fiji, Tonga, and the New Zealand dependencies and mandated territory. The population in the area was about 250,000, and it was proposed to have uniform quarantine regulations, to exchange information, and medical personnel, and to train native nurses, dentists, sanitary inspectors, and nursing orderlies.