FIGHTING TUBERCULOSIS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24748, 23 November 1943, Page 2

FIGHTING TUBERCULOSIS

The medical conference which opens in Auckland to-day has a subject of extreme importance to consider—the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis. In the last few years the general public has become better aware of the prevalence of this disease, and of the danger of allowing its ravages to go unchecked. The medical examination of recruits for the armed forces, with an X-ray ot the chest as part of the routine, has resulted in very many cases being detected in the earliest and consequently the most tractable stages. This has been beneficial to the extent that prompt treatment has been possible. It has also had the advantage of drawing public attention to the whole problem. Similarly, the high incidence of the disease among the Maori people has been emphasised increasingly, and this also has helped to stir the conscience of the public. It is well that this attitude is spreading. If the conference, which will be attended by medical men and by representatives of hospital boards, and will thus deal mainly with technical and administrative questions, helps nevertheless to educate the community further on a subject in which it ought to be deeply concerned, it will justify itself even should it achieve nothing further. Since the disease is largely the product of environment, as discussion of its ravages in Maori villages and settlements has illustrated, there needs to be a social conscience about it. It is better that it should be defeated in the home than subsequently treated in hospital or sanatorium. As, however, it has a grip already, and the treatment, of patients is an existing problem, such conferences as that opening to-day are valuable, and are entitled to the sympathy and support of all who realise the importance of the effort they represent.