THE WHITE PLAGUE.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18369, 30 April 1925, Page 10

THE WHITE PLAGUE.

WORSE THAN THE WORLD WAR. Consumption, said Mr G. F. Earp, M.L.C., in giving evidence before the Health Commission at Sydney recently, kills more and causes permanent incapacity to more unfortunates than any world-wide war between nations. Tet it might be wiped out in a generation, if properly tackled. Mr Earp, who spoke as president of the National Association for the Prevention and Cure of Consumption and vice-president of the Help for Consumptives' Appeal, states the "Daily Telegraph," said the disease was largely, if not wholly, preventible, and was curable if cases were early detected and treated. "But," he he adder^ "if not dealt with drastically, it will continue in the future, as has been the case in the past, to kill more humanity and consign more unfortunates to permanent incapacity —not to speak of years of suffering, until kindly death rings down the curtain—than any world-wide war between nations." The ravages of the disease, he went on, could be eliminated only by industrious investigation of the individual sources of infection, and the area of its spread. Sanatoria were not entirely for the reason that married men became homesick, and returned to their families before being cured. There was also the question of financial support for the sufferer's family in his absence. What were needed first of all were dispensaries or tuberculosis clinics where patients might submit themselves for examination or treatment. For • cases needing more serious treatment than was possible at home there should be special hospitals, and for still more serious cases, sanatoria. He would like, he said, to see a village settlement established, . and believed many consumptives would be glad to go there, knowing they would be in comfort. What was really wanted, he said, was early notification of the disease, prompt removal of the sufferer in cases when it was and financial, assistance from the Government for the dependants of the victims.