Incidence and the Use of Prophylactic Facilities During 1942

In his review of medical work in VD Section Maadi Camp Hospital and 101 NZ VDTC for the year ended 31 December 1942, Captain Fox set out the classification of the 583 inpatients as follows: Gonorrhoea, 144; soft sore, 177; syphilis, 51; other diseases, 106; urethritis (non-venereal), 105. The average daily bed state was 44.

There were 155 cases which received outpatient treatment only. The monthly average for New Zealand outpatient treatments at 101

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NZ VDTC was 488, or a daily average of 18.44 (Sundays excluded). Of the total of 738 cases reviewed it was found that 28.99 per cent admitted having had previous venereal disease, that 47.78 per cent had used PA Centre facilities, and that 24.71 per cent stated that they had alcohol before exposure to infection.

The figures showed that the precautions taken to avoid venereal disease were far from satisfactory. In an analysis taken over a nine-months period in 1940–41 at Maadi Camp Hospital the percentage using the PA Centre facilities was 87 per cent. (In November 1941 DGMS Army HQ NZ observed that there was ‘a deplorable failure to use PA facilities in New Zealand.’)