MANKIND’S GRIMMEST FOE

Taranaki Daily News, 15 October 1930, Page 3

MANKIND’S GRIMMEST FOE

WAR AGAINST TUBERCULOSIS. A MORE HOPEIT7L ATTITUDE. There was to-day a more hopeful attitude towards tuberculosis, said Mr. Arthur Greenwood, Minister of Health, opening, in London, the' sixteenth annual conference of the National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, states the Daily Telegraph. He added that it, was a fact of great significance that the death-rate from the disease, which in the closing years of the nineteenth century was two per 1000. was' now a little less than one per 1000. ? . ~ '

. “Thpt indicates,” Mi*. Greenwood proceeded, “that we have got on top, and it ought to be an encouragement now that/tho enemy is on the run, to go forward to the final conquest of tuberculosis. I cannot believe myself that we should regard tuberculosis as a per? in.fneiiscourge of the huihan. race.” Greenwood announced that he had approached a numbex- ; of : local authorities with a view to the establishment of further village settlements as a contribution 'the . the solution of this problem. They should realise that the continuance in- their midst of tubercular people was a 1 menace' to the race' and. tlie population. " 1 -

. Speaking on the Local Government Act, ,1929. Mr. Greenwood said he never believed that 'it was : possible for any Government or an Minister to bully local authorities.*'Under the Act local authorities would enjoy, a greater measure of freedom arid be able tp look, at t’n&iri,health services as, a whole. ■ / They bad to realise'that unless there wiis ■ ad,equate fi-fter-care. much of the provision, now/made, .hjueh .of the exneHijlturp now‘.incurred,'must, be : Wasted. 1 ' They had ’to" find other ways of effective after-care, and , the. effective protection for the dependents and those closely associated bdth,;tubcrctllar cases. ' Tney must spread‘’their net wider than they had "done in 1 the past. There was a .mass of preyentible disease which ought to' make them hang their heads in shame., ', , : : . Sir George' Newman,' chief medical Officer to the.. Ministry, of Health and the Board o£ Education, declared, that tuberculosis was, the dominant black spectre in the social community of England and the countries of, the West. Its long" history in this country was a tale of • destruction. ■ / ; ■" i

Every year no fewer’than 70,000 new case? were formally notified, and every week 700 deaths in England and Wales w ere attributed to this disease, Yet it was being steadily, one might almost say: rapidly, conquered. . ■ My. Gi'iffith?, of the W cst Hiding of •Yorkshire, spoke of tlie plight of the miners, and urged that there should be, an inspection of the parties where they kept the little food that they had! He believed in ' the majority of cases it would be .found that the origin of tubercujosis was in the pantry. . , In the mining areas to-day, Mr. Gnffitbs added, only about three shops were kept open—the margarine shop, the ’American shop and the pawnshop. Dr. Edward E. Brest, Ayrshire, startled the delegates by telling them:. ‘‘Most of you here have shadows :n your chests, showing that you tuberculosis inside you.” lie explained'that he had been taking photographs by a special apparatus, and he was still looking for' a. healthy person. ' ■ ", . He added, however, that with tuberculosis so long as a person felt_ quite well there was no need to worry. It was when people fell ill with it that the disease became serious. Dr. William Brand, senior tuberculosis offerer for Camberwell, urged that there was much they could do to make domiciliary treatment a much bigger advantage to the patient and his people than it was to-day. 1 110 pictured how the poor people devcloped the habit of leaving their homes to 00 for treatment. Patients even m the 'final stage of the disease would drag themselves to the dispensary or the outpatients’ department of the hospitals or to the consulting rooms of the general rraefitioners. There they would be found holding themselves up with difficulty, waiting their turn to see the doctor. Many a time he had sent such patients koine with the nurse. ■ _ ' Dr. Constance Brown spoke of the need for pure air. Everywhere they went they breathed nicotine. “1 c?n hardly sit down next to a lady but she puffs, volumes of smoke from her cigarette,” said Dr. Brown. “I take up my hankerchief and try to fan it a If that is not effective I say to her:. ‘I wish you would kindly consume ypur own smoke.’ (Laughter). I woiild say this—the men smoke very much better tlmn the women."