SPREAD OF T.B.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16542, 28 September 1921, Page 8

SPREAD OF T.B.

PRESENT MEASURES NOT EFFECTIVE. DANGER INCREASING. “ Half the hills will be covered with T.B. shelters iu a few years, unless tlio position is faced and the disease fought without quarter,” said a member of the Hospital Board at to-day’s mcetMrs Herbert moved North Canterbury Hospital Board urges tho Government to make provision for Sanatorium treatment for undesirable consumptives; the term v undesirable ’ means persons of illrepute, drunkards, etc., who have no regard for their own health and are a menace to the eouimuuit} 7 .” Mrs Herbert said that a shocking state of affairs existed. If it continued, there was a chanco that more children would be born into the world as consumptives than*-could be treated on the hills. Dr Fenwick said that ho hoped the board would support the motion. It was said that the country was bankrupt. It would be infinitely more bankrupt in a few years if adequate measures were not taken to prevent the spread of T.B. The motion was carried. A letter was received from Dr Bla-ck-niore calling attention to the fact that immigrants are arriving from London, suffering from tuberculosis. The secretary reported that the complaint had been forwarded to the Department of Health calling attention to the apparent laxity at either the port of embarkation or on arrival in New Zealand.

Mrs Herbert said that something should be done to cope with this menace. People with T.B. were coming to New Zealand because they believed that the climate here was good for the treatment of the disease.

It was decided that a deputation riiould discuss the matter with the Minister of Public Health.

The secretary said a letter from the Under-Secretary of Immigration stated that in only one of the cases complaints] of had the person come to New Zealand as an assisted immigrant. This person, a woman, had been in possession of a medical certificate, issued in London, saying that her health was satisfactory. More inquiries would bo made on the subject. GASES READMITTED, Dr G. J. Blackmore, Medical Director of Tuberculosis Institutions, reported : “ As requestedhave allotted a line in the reports for re-admissions, but I may point out that nearly all admissions have been shown in the monthly returns. The impression that some members of the board appear to have, that the re-admission of patients who have had the disease arrested is of frequent occurrence, is incorrect. These re-admissions are very rare. I have gone through the Sanatorium and find that in the eleven and a half years since tho institution was opened only five patients who have been discharged with the disease arrested have hud to be re-admitted for further treatment. In two of these cases the relapse was slight, and would • scarcely huve called for re-admission if the patients had bad proper homes. They both did well, and have kept well ever since. A third patient had to bo readmitted with tuberculosis which had settled in a lung which had been seriously damaged by hydatid disease. “As regards the Coronation Hospital,” Dr Blackmore added, “ there have naturally been more re-admis-sions, but even there only ten persons who have had the disease arrested have been re-admitted since the hospital was 1 opened seven years ago. Two of these are still under treatment. Nearly all the re-admission cases that have been shown in the returns have been patients who have had to be sent to hospital for -surgical treatment for some other disease than tuberculosis. Their names were taken off these books when they were sent to hospital so as to avoid confusion, arid they were then re-admitted on discharge from hospital. In all the years the institutions have been opened only one patient who came in originally with quite early disease has had to be re-admitted for further treatment. *

“ I may point out that these results have been obtained largely because no patient is discharged except at life or her own request, unless there is a reasonable prospect of tho patient remaining well. No cases are ever sent out because their disease is incurable. They are always kept if they are willing to stay. Another factor which has played .a, large port in preventing re-admis-sions is tho supervision which the patients receive after their discharge. All discharged cases are kept under observation at the dispensary for a long; period, usually some years after their discharge, and they come periodically for examination, to see whether there is any sign of relapse, eo that steps can be taken forthwith to check it. There are now hundreds of these cases who have passed through the Sanatorium institutions under observation in this way, and the dispensary nurse pays something like a thousand visits a year to these patients in their own homes to see that they are living uner good conditions. At the present time there are several patients who have gone to live in other parts of the Dominion, who make periodical visits to the dispensary to undergo examination and receive a report as to their condition. It, is this supervision of so many persons that tends to make the dispensary work so heavy, and the work necessarily increases from year to year, as the discharged patients increase in number.”