The Press. THURSDAY, JULY 11, 1901 OUR DEADLIEST DISEASE.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 11014, 11 July 1901, Page 4

The Press. THURSDAY, JULY 11, 1901 OUR DEADLIEST DISEASE.

Mr. Ell does not seem to have got much satisfaction out of the Government in his attempts to induce them to take some earnest steps in the direction of coping Avith a disease which is responsible for more deaths than any other cause, Avhich is highly infectious, and Avhich at the same time is entirely preventible. We refer, of course, to tuberculosis in all its varied forms, of Avhich consumption of the lungs is the commonest and most deadly. The GoA-ernment, it appears, have gone so far as to get some sketch plans prepared of a sanatorium capable of holding some forty patients, but that is as far as they have gone or apparently care to go for the present. They think it "better not to " be in a hurry but to Avait for fuller and

more up-to-date information which is be-

"ing carefully and Avidely collected." The disease, Aye need hardly say, does not wait. It is taking off yearly some 800 of our population, a large proportion of them consisting of the fairest and most promising of our youth of both sexes. Hoav many there arc sick Avith the disease at any one time it is

impossible to say, but the most appalling feature about the position is that each one of the_e invalids, after the disease has passed a certain stage, becomes a highly dangerous source of infection to others, and in the conditions Avhich usually prevail is bound to leaA-e a legacy of woe for other sufferers to inherit. Yet if we only did our duty in this matter it would be quite possible, we believe, to stamp out the disease from these islands altogether. We should then have, only to watch imported cases to see that they Avere treated promptly on modern methods, and Aye might practically keep our population free. We should reduce our death-rate by at least one-tenth, and. the sum of human sorrow -and suffering by an nalmost incalculable extent. Yet the Gover-

ment, with its recently constituted expensive Health Department, thinks that these are not objects Avorth striving after, and that there is no need to hurry in the matter!

We wish every member of our Parliament would read an article in tha "Revue d?s Deux Mondes" for April 15th, entitled "Tuberculose in Paris, and the Popular Sanatoria," by Dr. Henri Barth. It is. avc think, tbe most lucid and most telling exposition of tuberculosis, its nature, it. ravages, and its proper treatment, that we have ever read. Government would be doing a good work if they got a translation made of it and circulated throughout the colony as a leaflet. In France, it appears, there is the same deplorable apathy in regard to this dread disease as exists in this country. In Paris, out of six children who die between the third and fifteenth year, four at least owe their death to tuberculosis of the digest iA-e organs, the ganglia, or the brain. Among young people between twenty and thirty, six deaths out of ten are imputable to pulmonary consumption. Out of 50,000 deaths from all causes annually in Paris no feAver than 12.500, or one-fourth, are due to tuberculosis. This is a contagious disease, transmissible from man t* man; tbe mode of its causation is known, and hoAv to preA-ent its transmission. we also know how in the majority of cases it may be cured, if taken

in time. Yet in Paris, as in New Zealand, there is no organised method of dealing wit*, the disease, and tlie people are only just beginning to draw out plans and schemes for the establishment of hospitals and homes for its treatment. In Germany and in Switzerland, on the other hand, energetic _teps have been taken, with the result that there is already an appreciable diminution in the ravages of the disease.

We need not remind our readers of the fact, frequently explained in these columns, that the disease is principally propagated by the expectoration of consumptive patients. The bacilli contained in this are capable of being preserved for an indefinite time, and, especially Avhen it has been dried into dust, of being diffused to an unlimited extent. If either inhaled or swallowed by a human being at all predisposed to take the disease, cither from being "beloAv par, or from hertditary tendency, they will set up the complaint, and the neAv patient in turn becomes a centre of infection. The danger, of course, is greatest in a croAvded town like Paris. Dr. Barth mentions cases

Avhere successive occupants of a room in Avhich a consumptive person has lived h.-we been sAiept off by the disease. One particular case Avhich he mentions is particularly striking. In a public office in Paris, in which tAventy-tAvo employees Avorked. two tuberculous persons entered in 1878 and remained there for several years, coughing constantly, and often spitting upon the floor. The employees arriA-ed early in the morning, Avhen the dust avus raised by the usual dry sweeping, and betAveen 1884 and 1889, in tho space of five years, thirteen of them necessarily contracted pulmonary consumption and succumbed!

If Aye did our duty in this matter every consumptive person Avould be taken in hand at an early stage of the malady, before it has had time to do serious mischief to the patient, and before he became a source of danger to others. If he Avei _ taken to a home and placed under the treatment Avhich

has been found so successful, consisting of rest, combined Avith plenty of nourishing food, and aboA-e all, abundance of fresh air, in the majority of cases he Avould be cured in a few months, and the precautions taken in those institutions are such that even if the disease progressed he Avould not""-_'a source of danger to others. Possibly public opinion is not ripe for compulsory removal to a home in all cases, although Aye cannot doubt that most patients avouM only be too glad to avail themselves of the most rational

means of cure. If they prefer to remain in their own houses, society has at least a right to insist that measures of precaution shall be taken, as in other infectious diseases, to prevent the dissemination of this aAvful scourge.

We confess Aye do not understand the apathy of the Health Department in this matter. They made fuss enough, and spent thousands of pounds oa*er the threatened ad-A-ent of the plague, yet they apparently attach no importance to a preventibie contagious disease actually in our midst, claiming its 800 victims or so every year. There is no mystery about the iisav method of treatment. Dr. Mason must knoAv all about it already, or he is not fit for his position. He Avill find in the article to Avhich Aye have referred full descriptions of the sanatoria in Germany established by the insurance offices and others, in Avhich the most successful results have been obtained. More than tAvothirds of the invalids, after three months at the sanatorium, Aye are told, present all the appearances of a complete cure, and are in a state to take up their Avork again. Government, in our opinion, should establish at least one of these, sanatoria at once. Of course, it Avill cost moneA-, but it costs

money at the present time to treat consump-

lives in the ordinary hospitals, the difference being that in the latter case they cannot be treated satisfactorily, and they maybe a source of danger to the other patients. There is much more, justification for spending Government money on a sanatorium for

consumptlA-es than on the existing sanatoria for rheumatic patients at Rotorua and Hanmer. A rheumatic patient is not a source of danger to other people ; one consumptive may infect a ivhole household or even a Avhole district. We hope that Mr. Ell Avill continue to "peg away at the Government, and that he will be joined by other members until a vote, is placed on the Estimates. Could not the Mtdical Societies give some help in this matter?