Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. THURSDAY, APRIL, 15, 1909 FIGHTING TUBERCULOSIS.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4398, 15 April 1909, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

THURSDAY, APRIL, 15, 1909 FIGHTING TUBERCULOSIS.

this above all—to thine own gel/be true, ini it must follow a» the night the dag Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

The alarmiDg prevalence of tubercolosis is a circumstance which from time to timo attracts the attention of the general public, but yet it is also a fact that to the robust the question is one which does not present any very pressing need for consideration. Consumption is one of those diseases from which so many people suffer in a comparatively mild way, living for years after they have been attacked by the complaint, and often pre senting such a brave aspect to the outer world, that it is only with the aid of a certain amount of imagination the outer world can guess what they suffer, and we are apt to underrate its deadly power. Yet if one were to pause and think over the number of persons actually known to oneself or family, who were actually suffering in the advanced stages of this most insiduous disease it would be seen how generally prevalent it is.

And the trouble is that the tremendous infective character of the disease is not sufficiently recognised. Persons'infer ted with this complaint move from house to house, from place to place, sometimes from resort to resort, practising as little caution in the matter of the infection which they are likely to distribute as, under the existing laws relating to the disease, they are able to practise. Even where health inspection is carried out with vigour it is impossible to deal with the whole risk. There are probably consumptive caß6B in which the patient is as conscientious for the safeguarding of others as most people are for the safaguarding of themselves or their childron, but these cases are not too common. On the other hand, the common practice of expectorating into pocket handkerchiefs, or using the same

drinking cups as others, of sticking letters vith saliva, and kissing, both adulls and children, all these forms of spreading the disease are too common

What is to be done to check them ? The Government cannot adequately deal with all these aspects of the matter. The only way is for a sound public pn jud ce against all | such practices to be built up- Quite apart from the known risk of infection resulting from the ordinary contact of consumptives with others, especially with children, the practice of kissing little children on the lips should be discountenanced all times, no one but the members of their immediate family being accorded this privilege. In the matter of expectorating in public, on the streets and sidewalks, the Government has already dealt with that in the placards which we ree posted about in our public places But we would suggest that the Government should offer some incentive to someone to invent destructable pocket handkerchiefs, which would not in appearance differ from the ordinary kind, and which could be burned instead of being washed. No doubt if those could be offered by the Government at a nominal price they would be extensively purchased, and used by consumptive sufferers, and thus one immense source of danger would be minimized. For it is known that boiling does not destroy the infection from consumption. At the International Congress on Tuberculosis, held in Washington the following recommendations were made, bearing out the above suggestions and corroborating much that the New Zealand Government has already done :

1. That the health authorities should be notified of and should register every case of tuberculosis. 2. That all means should be used to prevent contagion from man to man, which is the most important source of the disease. 3. That all means should be used to prevent contagion from bovine tuberculosis, and that the possibility of the propagation of this to man be recognized. 4. That the public and all Governments be urged to establish hospitals, sanatoria, and camps. 5. That well considered factory laws, child labour laws, laws regarding women’s work, etc., be insisted on.

6. That instruction in school and personal hygiene be given in all schools.

7. That colleges require for entrance and for graduation studies in hygiene and sanitation. These recommendations are a clear indication of the seriousness with which the International Congress on Tuberculosis viewed the prevalence of the disease, and of the practical means they would apply to arrest its spread.