TREATMENT OF TUBERCULOSIS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 115, 13 April 1940, Page 6

TREATMENT OF TUBERCULOSIS.

iTo the Editor.) Sir, —I was very much struck by mi address which Dr. Francis of the Otani Sanatorium gave to the Palmerston North Lunch Club on tuberculosis, as reported in your paper recently. One s first thought is that we owe a debt of ,gratitude to Dr. Francis for his courage in making the statements he does regarding his own department, and the apparent lack of support he is receiving in trying to wipe out this deadly scourge in our midst, which is taking (»uch a heavy toll of the young lives in our Dom’uion. He makes lour statements which in themselves aie stuitliug and arresting : l Thirty-seven per cent of the notiliahle diseases are tuberculosis. 2. Of the deatiis from notifiable diseases 88 per cent, are from tuberculosis. V From this disease 10 people die every week or 520 per annum. 4. These deaths occur between the ages of 17—40, the most productive years of one’s life.. Because of research work doiro m other countries and because of the skill of medical men, tuberculosis is no longer a hopeless disease and can ho cured —yet one is amazed to laid that in this country virtually nothing is being done to prevent the spread of this dread disease. We have our sanatoria which are doing good work; but what is required are climes to be established for the prevention of the disease and for the detection of it in its early stages. Only during the past few weeks our papers have had big headlines drawing attention to the “Tragic Easter Week” in which 12 deaths were caused by road accidents.

We know that large sums of money have been spent and much propaganda has been used to bring about a induction in loss of life on the roads; jet here we have a disease killing almost this number every week —-not one week only—and one hears nothing of it. .’J lie economic as well as the liumanitaiian aspect demands that the ravages ol this disease should be eliminated, and l pen these lines in the hope that it may help to awaken the public io demand from the necessary authorities that these clinics be established, and that a man like Dr. Francis . should be assisted to the utmost in the excellent contribution he is making to the health of this country.— Yours, etc,, W. B. TENNENT. Palmerston North, April 12, 1940.