MENACE OF “T. B.”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 341, 30 April 1928, Page 8

MENACE OF “T. B.”

|N New Zealand to-day, men and women walk about who are as i dangerous as armed bandits. They are the unhappy victims of consumption—now commonly referred to as “T.B.”—who are not under proper treatment or control, and are often entirely uninstrueted as to the precautions they should take against infecting others. This menace is due to the hopelessly inadequate provision of sanatoria, the lack of which is a reproach to the Health Department. Dr. Blackmore, medical director of Cashmere Hill Sanatoria, only last week declared that it was useless to combat tuberculosis unless ample provision were made to deal with and segregate the most infectious and advanced cases. '‘Because,” said Dr. Blackmore, “so long as nothing is done for them, they are persistently scattering seed which will produce a plentiful crop of tuberculosis cases in the next, generation.” And it is seed that does not fall upon stony soil. Dr. Blackmore is not alone in his warning. Dr. J. Allan Berry, superintendent of the Napier Hospital, iff his annual report, says that there are many sufferers from tuberculosis who are a distinct menace to the community. “Moving among their fellows, they carelessly or Ignorantly —sometimes even criminally—neglect the necessary rules of hygiene, and might disseminate the disease among those with whom they come in contact,” says Dr. Berry, Condemnation of lack of action on the part of the Health Department has drawn from the Director General of Health, Dr. Valintine, a characteristically numb official reply. Dr. Valintine asks the North Canterbury Hospital Board “not to press the matter” of increased accommodation at Cashmere Sanatoria just now. Being “very much concerned at the increased cost of charitable aid, hospital buildings and accommodation, together with the large amount required, especially in the South Island, for the treatment of consumptives,” he has asked the Minister of Health to appoint a commission of medical men to inquire into the position. Another commission! It does not need a commission to emphasise the staring fact that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of consumptives are walking about infecting healthy persons, because the “do-not-press-the-matter” apathy of officialdom in the past has not made provision for proper accommodation and treatment. What is required is not a plague of commissions but more sanatorium buildings, and a. cessation of the Health Department’s obdurate policy of procrastination.