BATTLE WITH DISEASE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 154, 28 December 1942, Page 4

BATTLE WITH DISEASE

T.B. CAMPAIGN IN SWEDEN

The number of new tuberculosis i cases in Sweden has shown an increase in the last years, according to statements at' a national medical • coni gress recently held in the country. ; It is the first time for a considerable period that a deteriorating tendency in respect of this disease has i been registered in Sweden. A: real ; scourge during the nineteenth and beginning of the present century in | Sweden, it was forced back to a comparatively favourable level in the j period between the two world wars. The number of deaths decreased from 1.8 per 1000 of population in 1920 to 0.71 in 1940, the lowest figure recorded. The chief contributing factors were the generally increased standard of living, extensive new social measures, and the advance of medical science. . This satisfactory development has been replaced by a regressive trend, the causes of which are probably connected with the poorer food supply and other conditions from the present situation. To check the development as far as possible the Swedish authorities and physicians have launched an anti-tuberculosis campaign. A general X-raying of large population groups, by means of the cheap and convenient fluoroscopic image picture method arid vaccination of all negative persons by Calmette vaccine, are the foremost] measures suggested. Image photographing of the lungs and Calmette vaccination are already employed on a considerable scale, and have proved very efficient. In the period April-June this year 85,000 officers and soldiers of the Swedish defence forces were X-rayed by ambulating X-raying patrols, and, so far, 15,000 soldiers have been Calmette vaccinated. The same methods have been employed for children, students, nurses, and others. The Calmette ■. vaccine has been used in Sweden for children during a long period of years with good results, and in no cases have any harmful effects been discovered. As a link in.this activity and a first step towards the desire of X-raying all the people, the Swedish National Antituberculosis Union recently, started an examination in the northern parts of the country where tuberculosis is a frequently occurring disease. A specially constructed X-ray bus equipped with fluoroscopic image picture apparatus is being used, and it is calculated to be possible to examine up to 100 persons an hour. Intensified information . among the public and increased application of prophylactic measures are the means by which the Swedish physicians hope to be able to check the menacing tendency that the old I "national enemy" is showing as a result of the changed conditions from the war.