HEALTH NOTES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 497, 29 October 1928, Page 12

HEALTH NOTES

TUBERCULOSIS ITS CONQUEST PART 1. (Contributed by the Department oi Health.) Disease is not an entity. It is not the result o£ any one factor, but of many, and this particularly applies to tuberculosis. This scourge of mankind, the white plague, consumption, tuberculosis, is the product of such evils as working or living in overcrowded or badly ventilated, dirty, dark rooms, worry, bad or insufficient food, wrong habits of life, all of which go to form a vicious circle. The chief victims of this disease are the undernourished, the ill-fed and over-worked among the population, and if it is to be eradicated there must be readjustment and improvement in living and working cpnditions. The fight against tuberculosis is a philanthropic and sociological effort rather than a medical one. Thus the supreme importance of the application of the principles of preventive medicine for the creation of a healthy race. Every factor which operates for the betterment of the physical, moral, and mental well-being of the community represents an attack on this "pestilence that walketh in darkness.” We have reasonable belief that tuberculosis has existed in the very early ages as a disease in man in whom it exhibits various forms according to the part of the body attacked. We are thus able to divide the population, broadly speaking, into two groups, those in whom the disease is active and those in whom it is not, or perhaps has never been; but we know from medical examinations of numbers of people that there is a third class which very often acts as a link —a class which, while not showing definite evdence of the disease, has the danger signal up, and this class (often Cane'S the pretubercular class/ has several representatives: (a) Those in whom the disease is latent through past infection: (b) those who are physically going down hill; (c) those who by heredity are susceptible. They exist in our schools, among our adolescents, and in the adult population. What is their fate to be?

We are told by eminent authorities that the foundation of health is laid in the care and education of the child from its earliest infancy, nay before, in the health and education of the parent. We have a well-organised Plunket system, which has done much for the children of New Zealand, and which deserves their deep gratitude. We have our medical inspection of schools, which is ever widening its activities for the protection of the child’s health. Safeguarding Children We may hope surely then for the day when the child that is vulnerable to tuberculosis will be thoroughly safeguarded. With this object in view, such children will be protected from possible infection in the home; and steps must be taken to safeguard the children of tubercular parents (see “Precautionary rules against tuberculosis,” as issued by the Health Department). Difficult as this problem is, it is one of supreme importance. In some countries, France, for instance, there is a system whereby children are removed from the care of tuberculous parents, and reared in a safe environment. The “Oeuvre Grancher," as the organisation concerned is called, arranges for the boarding out of children of tuberculous parents among the French peasantry. In this way, not only is the child removed from probable infection, but he is placed among surroundings which are likely to encourage in him that love of country life which is an added protection to him. The results of this system, which has how been operaing in France for approximately some 20 years, indicate very definitely its wisdom, for the death rate of children of tuberculous parents under this scheme has become dramatically reduced. Not. only is it essential to minimise for susceptible children the risk .of infection, but it is necessary that they be afforded the necessities for healthy nutrition and growth—good food, fresh air, sunlight, adequate rest, and appropriate exercise. The education curriculum provided for them should be capable of such modification as is indicated by the requirements of their delicate bodies.