“THE WHITE SCOURGE.”

Taranaki Daily News, 1 July 1922, Page 12

“THE WHITE SCOURGE.”

ADDRESS BY AN EXPERT ’ ——- FACTS AND FALLACIES. ♦ PRESENT-DAY TREATMENT. “Everybody from time to time invaded by the tubercle bacilli.” declared Dr. Bernstein, medical superintendent of the New Zealand Government sanatoria for consumptives, in introducing an address to the Auckland Rotary Club, under the the heading, “Consumption: Facts and Fallacies.” The germs of tuberculosis were everywhere, added Dr. Bernstein, through the coughing and expectoration of consumptives, who were more numerous than most people thought. Any alarm that might have been awakened by these sweeping statements was allayed, however, by the further information that while everybody was infected with the disease, everybody did not become ill with it, because the body could engulf and destroy the germs and gradually acquire the habit of forming antidotes to destroy the invaders and their poisons, eventually in quite large numbers.

Post-mortem examination, no matter what had been the cause of death, showed the presence of tubercle, active or arrested, in every adult. The invasion seemed to occur chiefly in .childhood, and was successfully dealt with in most. So the disease was not the hopeless one people imagined, but, on the contrary, the most hopeful of all diseases. It should be regarded as a general blood-poisoning rather than a local disease.

Consumption, which furnished threefourths of all cases of tuberculosis, was not an inherited disease. No child was born with it, not even the child of consumptive parents, though a child might acquire the disease from contact with careless parents.

BASIS OF MODERN TREATMENT. Three classes of the disease were distinguished by the lecturer: (1) That of the man who overcame infection without being aware that he had it—about 80 to 90 per cent, of the whole population; (2) the person who had definite signs or symptoms, but was able to carry on fairly normally for years, and was a greater danger to others than to himself; and (3) the man who has got the disease more actively, and died in a few months or years. By repeated small invasions the body might be able to acquire resistance and throw off the complaint. It was on this principle of acquired resistance that the modem treatment of tuberculosis was based. To ensure good results, the cases must hdealt with as early as possible, and in such cases there was every prospect of recovery. Ten per cent, or more of all deaths, and 37 per cent, of the deaths between 20 and 35 years, were due to tuberculosis. In New Zealand, about 1000 persons died annually of the disease, and over 1000 new cases were discovered each year. The present number of active cases are at least 6000, and upon the sufferers there were probably 20,000 dependents. If tubercle were abolished the increases in expectation of life for males between 15 and 25, at £2OO for each male, would represent to the country a gain of £50,000,000, or a recurring annual gain of £2,500,000. Smallwas the greatest cause of mortality, was pox, which within three generations ago now practically unknown in civilised countries, and we could hope for a similar result in regard to tuberculosis.

IMPORTANCE OF REST. Dealing with the treatment of diseases, Dr. Bernstein insisted upon the importance of rest in bed, as an assistance to nature in the formation of the resistant antidote of the tuberculous poison. Premature exertion stimulated a fresh output of poison, but by bringing about exertion gradually, the body could be trained to produce sufficient of the antidote. This plan of graduated rest and exercise was the only treatment that yielded good results. and it is the method of the morfern sanatorium. Hygienic surroundings and good food must accompany the sys tern, but the graduated rest and exertion was what really counted. Even sufferers in an advanced stage of disease might be made fit for four or five years’ work, and if patients were sent to sanatoria early they would be made fit for 30 or 40 years. The whole success of treatment depended upon constant supervision by an expert who knew how to increase gradually the patient’s resistance. The general idea that work in the open was necessary for the consumptive, said Dr. Bernstein, was wrong. Farming and gardening were generally too laborious. Against popular ideas, he asserted that sedentary occupation was generally the best for the man who had to make his living. If a clerk, spending less than a quarter of his life in his office, sat at an open window, the conditions were hygienic; and in the other three-quarters of his time he could take the requisite exercise, not a recreation. Many lives were ruined through the patients going on the land. Suitable work that produced a living wage was more important than abundance of fresh air on an empty stomach.

FRIENDLY SOCIETY PATIENTS. Touching upon the position of friendly society patients, Dr. Bernstein stated that sufferers who reached the sanatorium at a late stage could only be made fit for partial work. It was difficult to get partial work to produce a living wage, but if a patient went to work his society dropped its assistance, so that the man was encouraged to idle away his time. The policy of societies should be to encourage the man to do the work for which he was fit, and supplement the deficiency in his earnfags. Finally, the speaker pleaded with employers not to fight shy of the consumptive when he asked for employment.

On the motion of Mr. Charles Rhodes, president, of the club, who presided over the gathering. Dr. Bernstein was warmly thanked for his contribution.