The Daily News FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1904. THE PREVENTION OF TUBERCULOSIS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 258, 4 November 1904, Page 2

The Daily News FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1904. THE PREVENTION OF TUBERCULOSIS.

The desirability of measures to prevent the spread of tubercular disease within our colony should be plain to everybody. Tho causes which lead to its dissemination and the best methods of controlling these have long passed beyond the region of theory or hypotheses. It is not enough for ub to know that at present our death-rate fr 0 m such- diseases is lower than ia the older countries with huge cities and large proportions of badly nurtured people. From the Premier's recent remarks on tTie subject we gather that he has -become sensible of the faijt that "our colony is being made a dumpling ground for consumptives'," and that as a consequence it -is' "becoming saturated with phthisis." From any less authoritative source these statements would probably be received with doubt, if not with resentment. The convention is to regard New Zealand as superior in health-giving qualities to all other reguons, and its people as- secure from the worst maladies which elsewhere afflict humanity. This attitude is partly a survival of past trajditio-ns and partly blinking of unpleasant facts. It is best, however, to be candid in our dealings with such matters, and if we do not desire the spa-ad of phthisis or the admission of consumptive patients within our shores we oannot say so too plainly or too emphatically. Some years ago the Government, or «, member of it, proposed among, other things to exclude such -invalids altogether, and to take, effective measures for the control of our own domestic cases ; but those proposals were far in advance of the sentiment of the time, and met with but a cold reception. Since that time nothing effective in the way of prevention has been mooted. The, Health Depaitment issues leaflets and notices, and advises the public to do various sensible things. But the public takes no heed, and the Government exercises no inslistenoe or compulsion; and, as far as statistics of mortality show, there lias been no improvement in our death-ralie from tuberculosis-. The establishment of sanatoria is only indirectly and partially a preventive measure. These places are concerned only in curative treatment, and, as we will prove at a later stage, are not an. unmixed blessing. The yearly reports of the Health Department show for the last decenniuin an aveiiage d'eath-rate from tuberculosis of something over ten per ten thousand of the population. To quote from the Oflicial Handbook" f o r 1903 : "From phthisis there are more Ideat'hs thaw from any other cause. . . , Phthisis is now known to be a«d is treated as an infectious preventible dise a sj caused by the bacillus of tuberculosis, which is Communicable In many wtayfl. . . , From other forms of tubercular disease the deaths in- 1902 were 2.32 per 10,000 of population. Thus a large addition has to be made to the deaths from phthisis to appreciate the full mischief done 'by tubercular disease. . . . Legislative action has been recommended to .safeguard the life and health of the people from tubercle, and the complote isolation of consumptive patients, with the disinfection of their sputa and of everything that has been in contact with them, is suggested, from time as a neee&tary measure." But though the Government is thus wellinformed of the best methods of preventing the dissemination of this most fatal o'f maladies, it does meich less than it roallyi ought to do. Granted that, public sentiment against interference with private life, and creditable feelings of sympathy with the alliidted offer considerable obstacles to the en/orced isolation or sogragation of consumptives ; yet there is no reason why these should be permitted to tiravel and mix freely with healthy (MM'sons, when the public safety demands a fair measure of restriction. There can be no doubt that the establishment of sanatoria for such casef* does much to counterbalance the individual good done by tending to spread tho disease. These sanatoria are an attraction to tuberculous sufferers lro-m Other countries-, and unless carried on on quarantine, principles are on injustice to the population ainon« which 'they are planted. But there are in connection with tWem still graver sources of danger. It is a distinct wrong to the unafted traveller by the Government railways to find himself cooped up for hours in the same carriage's with poor hectic consumptives on their way to one or other of these Government sanatoria in search of relief or cure. If the Government has any regard for the opinions of its own health ollicers there might ha a special carriage provided for such sufferers. But thei>e is nothing of the kind (ionV l , and worse still, no measures for the disinfection' of railway Carriages are ever taken. If there i ;L any truth whatever in modern scientific theories regardin.g the dissemination of tu'berculosis by spores, which when taken into the body are likely t<? germinate and produce the bacilli of that disease, then the railway carriages 0 n the line's t 0 various health resorts must bo perfect granaries of these death-dealing germs. Everyone who lias had occasion to travel much knows the discomfort of being compelled to occupy the same compartment of a train or cabin of a steamer with some poor victim, whose »very cough probably fills the atmosphere with the germs of a deadly disease. We have dwelt somewhat on this aspect of the Subject for the reason that the control of tho travelling consumptive is a matter easily with-

in tile (unction of the Government. ' Considerations of humanity cause pity lor the victim of phrhisis, .but no ks.s do they do so for the sufferer from plague or Small-pox. In the fuse of these latter the Health Department lis always prompt to act. Why should it not act as promptly and eHi-.|ienitly in dealing with tuberculosis— tlio dis ruse ''which causes more deaths than any other cause V" In the matter of the proposed establishment of a private hospital for the treatment of this disease, which is at piesern exciting the minds of the citizens of Cambridge, it would be well for the H-'alth Department to recall its own expirience of a few years ago at the Otagt> township of Naseby. There its ollicers found a shocking proportion of persons, chiefly school cbilifren, suffering from phthisis, which -Intel beon contracted from invalids coming thc.o to partake of the benetits of the bracing climate. The most perfunctory study of the litera-tura of the subject must solve to convince -all responsible persons that the only means effectively to control the spread of this curse of humanity is to be found in strict preventive measures. No countrycan all'ord to let its iwople die from any preventible disease, . and yet in 1902—ithe figures for 1908 are not yet to hand—New Zealand.Jost 802 persons -through the ravages of tu borculonis. Via are shocked by the tale of death from the wreck of a Wairarapa or Tararua, and yet the sea took but tens where preventible disease takes hundreds. Moreover, those who died by drowning-had but momentary pangs of mind, and went out of life with a minimum of bodily suffering, while thoste in whom th» '-'White Ploiguo" plunges its talons are slowly done to death with a thousand agonies of mind and body. Thait we are not as a community shocked by this awful death-roll is due not to- any national, oallousnes?, but simply to the fact • that tine victims are slaughtered in detail, and that therefore we do not realise the yearly tragedy. It is not by any means wholly the fault of the' Government that New Zealand is becoming saturated with; phthisis. Because ol' its duties, and the machinery which gives it readier access to facts, it must bear its share of blame. But the gi'eat bulk of the fault lies with the ppople. Mistaken sentiment, apathy, absence of initiative, even- active opposition to ameliorative suggestions —all these are the errors of the puiblic.NoW that the Premier's public utterances on the subject have done something to arouse attention the possibility of beginning preventive measures is with us again. The iinflux of consumptives from abroad should be absolutely stopped, and the control of our own. cases shouldbe strictly insisted upon. There need bo no nigor or want of feeling in our methods, and with preventive measures the best curative treatment should go hand in hand. The Government needs only adequate public encouragement to be ena'blod in a few years to reduce our death bill from this cause to perfect insignificance.