Title: War Surgery and Medicine

Author: Stout, T. Duncan M.

Publication details: Historical Publications Branch, 1954, Wellington

Part of: The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945

This text is the subject of: ‘Something of Them Is Here Recorded’: Official History in New Zealand

Conditions of use

Share:

2 NZEF (IP)

In the Pacific Force (2 NZEF IP) the causes of admissions to medical units were very similar to those present in the Middle East. Table XIA for the year June 1943 to July 1944 shows skin diseases as easily the most frequent cause, followed by septic sores, malaria, dengue, tonsillitis, dysentery, diarrhoea, PUO, influenza, and nervous diseases. There were very few cases of infective hepatitis, pneumonia, and venereal disease. As in the Middle East, the malaria figures were kept low by a carefully planned campaign by the medical services. Deaths from disease numbered only sixteen.

Invalidings to New Zealand arose principally as a result of neurosis, skin disease, asthma, and diseases of the joints (TableXIB). page 752 In down-gradings for base duties these conditions were also prominent, as were diseases of the ear, and pes planus and pes cavus.