DEADLY CONSUMPTION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 111, 1 July 1911, Page 4

DEADLY CONSUMPTION.

SCOURGE OF MANKIND. ITS CONTROL, PREVENTION AND ERADICATION. How Lost to secure the administrative control of consumption was ore of the important questions dealt wifi at the Hospitals Conference in We! lington on Tuesday. The subject was introduced by the chairman of the North Canterbury Hoard, Mr. Horrell, who expressed doubt as to whether either the district health officers or even Dr. Valintinc himself could say how many consumesfives there were in the Dominion. Patients in the incipient stages of the

disease were, apt to be overlooked/.apd those in a more advanced stage sometimes neglected to call in medical aid. Medical men should be asked to give notification to the Health Department of all cases coming under their observation, and those suffering from the disease should Do invited to present themselves for examination at public dispensaries. The treatment at these places should bo free of charge. Again, inspectors in the employ of the boards should be required to keep a look-put for eases of consumption, and above all, there should be a system of inspection of school children. •The only way to check the spread of the disease was to establish an efficient system of notification. If it were once ascertained how many cases existed a campaign cbuhKbc inaugurated with some prospects of success. The reports of the medical superintendents at Christchurch and Wellington indicated the lines upon which the campaign must be conducted. These officers recommended that dispensaries, sanatoria, farm ' colonies, and homes for incurables, should be established. The thirty-six boards of the Dominion could not be expected to establish these institutions. The best way would be for the Government to establish one sanatorium and one farm colony for each island. It was dmost impossible for local boards to leal with the matter efficiently. The boards might establish small dispensaries to act in conjunction with the larger ones, and could in other ways supplement the efforts of the Government. The local boards should unloubtedly provide for advanced cases, and sanatoria now owned by boards •wild be utilised as homes for incarihlcs and in other ways. He movt 0;. That the Government should establish two well-found sanatoria and farm colonies, one in either island. The motion, was seconded by Mr, Armstrong (Marlborough). The Most Deadly Disease. Dr. Blackmoro (South Canterbury) laid consumption was one of the most deadly and wide-spread diseases existing at the present day. It attacked young, middle-aged, and old. It was said that no one over forty years of ige was entirely free from traces of consumption. The most valuable asset of any community-was its labour, ft might be computed that if 650 labourers died of consumption the M State incurred a loss of £200,000. This disease, which created so much aayoc, was preventive. Wherever it existed it was due, broadly speaking, to infection from milk and from consumptive human beings. Among the predisposing causes of consumption were inherited weakness, overwork, indulgence in alcohol, and insufficiency )f food. In dealing with the disease it was necessary to try to stop the production of the germ, and to try bo increase the resisting power of ■hose who were susceptible to the'disease, or had rendered themselves ar■ificially susceptible to it. The first i.ecessity was notification of cases • idvancod cases must be removed from imongst the healthy. Consumptives must bo educated so that they might mt give the disease to other people. People must bo educated generally as bo the means of avoiding the disease, vnd a pure milk supply must be ensured. It had been urged that the lost of destroying tubercular cows would bo prohibitive, but as a' fact it would handsomely pay this country to destroy every tubercular cow and pay compensation to the owner. Weccssary Precautions.

Dr. Hardwick Smith (Wellington) agreed that the methods described by Dr Blackmore must be adopted in any depl-vyvith,. the, scourge of consumption. In addition it would be necessary to provide for the segregation of refractory patients who would not submit to necessary rules ind treatment. It had been' stgted that every patient who died of consumption dragged two other people lown at least. These people, at least, could be saved. Means must be provided for separating early, interned lute and late cases. The work of carrying on the campaign should bo entrusted to specialists. Four Main Sanatoria. During the discussion Mr. G. Lonlon (Wellington) claimed that the auatoria controlled by the hospital wards compared not unfavourably vith those under the Goverpment. He suggested that the following motion vould probably bo more acceptable to die majority of the conference: That, sanatoria for the treat- ■ meat of consumption be established in suitable districts near to the four most important cities of the Dominion; that the boards of tho district embracing such cities control these sanatoria, and that patients from all the other districts of the Dominion beavailable. for treatment in such sanatoria, and that the expense incidental to the treatment be paid by the respective districts. The motion was seconded hy Mr. .Swing (Dunedin). Mr. Fraser (Oamaru) declared that fonsumption had not been dealt with in the proper way. It was an infections disease, but had not been treat'd as such; it was a preventive disuse, but little had been done to prevent it. The scheme outlined by Dr. llackmore seemed a very good one, mt he did not think that the boards vould be able to carry it out properly. If this was to be done the Gov■rnment would have to take it up. Hear, hear.) It was no good dealing vith it piecemeal as the boards would 10. Compulsory Notification. Some dissent was expressed by Mr. virk (Wellington), who said ho could mt agree with the criticism of the wards. It was not necessary to ask the Government to do everything. He vould move: That the conference is of opinion that the notification of consumption and its allied diseases be made compulsory. Further, that it 1)0 a recommendation to the Government that hospital boards he given power to detain, for treatment in these institutions, persons who are suffering from tuberculous disease, if, in the opinion of the Health Officer or medical superintendent of the hospitals,-such detention is necessary in the interests of public health. : de was of opinion that consumption ■.hould bo as much a subject for commlsory notification as was scarlet fever and its allied diseases. There was grave need for public education upon the matter. Mr. Hawke (Southland) seconded tho motion. Obligation cn Doctors. In reply to a questioner, Dr. Valin:ine said that consumption was an inactions disease, and it was imperaivo upon medical practitioners to notify it. 'fhe trouble was that a case lasted for, say, three years, and doctors who had it in their hands during f ho latter stages always assumed that it had been notified before. What was wanted was notification and re-noti-fication. The requirement of the law was not being cai t ied out as it should bo. ' ’ ' • ■ •>