[?]I Health Drive
p. 79 · Read in the full issue
Ean Up Plan Under Way
[?]omen Assist in [?]I Health Drive
From W. H. Percival, in Rarotonga ► For many years Aitutaki has m the Cook Group’s worst prob i island, with social degeneration ng hand in hand with bad and ufficient housing and serious ilth problems.
HE most serious diseases are tuberculosis and leprosy, and ! infant mortality rate is high, irosy is on the increase, es iially among schoolchildren, but building of a leprosy isolation 1 treatment centre is well under 7- ?he Public Works Department ently completed a new four ssroom school at Aitutaki, which i be used by children suffering m leprosy. Five senior Maori chers have volunteered to teach se unfortunate children, in spite the attendant risk of infection I the fact that they will receive additional pay. n March, the Au Vaine, a nen’s organisation, helped in nantling condemned houses and lerally tidied up the island’s eight ages. There is now a marked
improvement in the appearance of the villages, especially those of Tautu and Vaipae.
The Au Vaine of the Cook Islands was originally formed to control wandering stock, and to ensure that the owners of stray animals were fined. In 1926-27, Dr. E. P.
Ellison, Chief Medical Offic Q r at Rarotonga, persuaded the Au Vaine of most of the Group to take up additional public health duties, and child welfare work was thus intro duced.
Dr. A. S. Wallace and Mr. R.
Thorby arrived at Rarotonga by the April Maui Pomare. Dr. Wallace, Public Health MO for Auckland, returned to the Cook Islands to standardize and extend existing health services in the outer islands,
and to assist in developing Aitu taki’s leprosy isolation and treat ment centre.
He will work under the general direction of Rarotonga’s acting CMO, Dr. D. D. McCarthy, and will spend two months in Aitutaki or ganising a BCG campaign, Mr. R. Thorby, whose enthusiasm and hard work as Atiu’s Resident Agent did a very great deal for that island’s progress, will com mence his new duties as Aitutaki's RA.
With good leadership, expert medical attention, and the full support of the Islanders and the NZ Government, the long-term plan to defeat Aitutaki’s ills should succeed.