N.Z. MUST TRY TO STAMP OUT TUBERCULOSIS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18938, 7 December 1929, Page 32 (Supplement)

N.Z. MUST TRY TO STAMP OUT TUBERCULOSIS.

ENCOURAGING RESULTS ALREADY SECURED. (Written for the “ Star ” by E. J. Howard, M.P.). Newspapers are wonderful things. We can abuse the editors, or say we were wrongly reported, but after all newspapers are wonderful things. We get up grumpy in the morning, something has gone wrong with our digestive organs and we have spots in our eyes, and all the world seems out of joint. The darn clock was slow, the gas or electric ring has gone wrong and, anyway, life is hardly worth living, but we open up the newspaper. And breathes there a man with soul so dead that the whole day isn’t spoilt for him if someone has “pinched his paper.” We can buy one on our road to town, or borrow one, but it is not the same. I am a peace-loving individual, and love my neighbours as myself, but boiling oil would not be sufficient punishment to satisfy me, for the man who steals my paper. We in New Zealand have much to be thankful for in the standard of our newspapers. Of course, all great men have suffered some time or' other through being wrongly reported. Or at least one can put it that way. Psychological Effect. Wednesday evening’s paper must have given a message of hope to thousands of our citizens when they opened it up and found that a clergyman in the Far North had discovered a cure for the disease we call consumption. Of course, it will be splendid if he has discovered a cure, but even if it proves not to be 99 per cent true, if there is a grain of truth in it, it will be a step forward. Which sets me thinking. What is consumption? In the days of Victoria the Good love stories always ended, if the heroine were deserted, by the lady going into a decline and dying off peacefully and happily. To-day our women don’t die that way; they simply smile and say: “Well there’s as good fish in, the. sea as ever was caught, let him go!” But still psychology does play a wonderful part in our lives. Aledicine may have some effect, but all doctors know that if they cannot inspire faith in their patients, the case is hopeless for them. If I could have my way I would have copies made of that wonderful film shown at the Civic Theatre at that cancer campaign meeting. If every child could see those little lighting, bumping cells actually working, the child would soon realise that every particle of his body was a sacred trust, and he mentally would help those cells to do their work.

History of Disease. What is consumption, or to use the more popular term “tuberculosis”? One of the great things about the cancer meeting was the acknowledgment of those splendid doctors that they didn’t know what was the cause of the disease. Now what do we know about tuberculosis? In 1882 Koch, of Berlin, isolated this little parasite and described him to us. Then other men went on and tried to study the life history of this little chap. Of course Vears before that there had been observers who had written about tubercle, but our Berlin friend actually found the tubercular bacillus, that is, he found the family to which this mischievous little chap belonged. So they have found him, know how he works, know the mischief he does after he gets into the body; know that what is termed healthy people have been found on death, through natural causes or some other complaint, to have had millions of these little chaps in their bodies. And yet it is safe to say that even to-day no one knows where he actually comes from. The Run-Down Feeling. What do we mean when we say we are run down? That we want a holiday, that we ought to go away for a ; chance of air, etc., etc.? What is run down? Well no once could see those little, fighting, working, living cells last week without realising what a wonderful thing man is. When radium was . introduced to those swimming, jump- < ing; eating little cells—when we saw how they slowed up, refused to work , and then apparently shrivelled up and died, we began to realise that if we < asked these cells of ours to do too ; much work, or if we over-worked some portion of the human body, them these 1 cells ceased to go on with their job ; and we say we are run down. And i we have got to knock off and give ■ them a chance to recover. Then again, what part does our < thoughts play in connection with our i blood cells? Those subject to seasick- < ness know that they can make them- : selves very unwell even on dry ; land if they only think aout the i rolling of the ship. What part does environment play in causing sick- I 1 ness? I know this, that a certain group I of people changed the place of their : meeting and they have never had a happy meeting since. I believe our subsoil water' in Christchurch is playing . a greater part in our daily lives to-dav than the majority dream of. If we could let out that estuary, let the stagnant water go to sea and the clean water take its place for a time half the arguments would cease and Christchurch would go ahead. Festive Season. We are approaching a festival that probably does more to heal the sick and help the weary than anything during the other-three hundred and sixtyfour days. Christmas! The day of the child. We all know that the 25th of December really does not mark the great event, but the civilised world, or , at lea-st the Christian world, has adopt- ■

ed that date to celebrate the birth of a Child in a little town called Bethlehem. And next week, and the week after, we will see staid old gentlemen, and young gentlemen and elderly ladies and young ladies, and even flappers, carrying parcels and smiling and happy because they are going to give someone something. And we shall all say to one another, “A Merry Christmas,” and we shall mean it, and our blood will go singing through our veins carrying joy to every part of our body. And those little cells will dig in and build a wall around our tubercle bacillus. When Cells Won*t Work. If we could feel that Christmassy feeling all the year round we should beat that cunning little phthisis chap. But we don’t feel that way for three hundred and sixty-four days. We become run down. Our cells won’t work. May be we have taken something into our system and poisoned them or put them out of action for a time, or maybe we have not given them sufficient food and they haven’t the energy needed to do their job. So that little thread-like parasite gets to work. He gets into our lungs and forms little colonies. He starts eating the defenceless cells around him, and builds and builds. He gets into our breathing apparatus, and we cough and cough until we break down the lining and we have what is termed a hcemorrhage. Then, if we are lucky we go off to the top of the hill and eat good food and rest the cells of our body and encourage them to build a wall around our tubercle colonies and we come down cured, or apparently cured, until something breaks down the walls arevund the tubercle and away she goes again. During the war America lost 35,000 by deaths. In 1921 she is said to have lost 100,000 persons through tuberculosis. For each person who dies from the disease there are three sick living people, and seven sickening with the disease. In this country we are verj* fortunate in having a lower rate than our cousins across the pond. Our death rate is only 5.02 per 10,000 of the population. Our death rate from cancer is nearly double that or 9.87 per 10,000. Last year we lost 699 people from tuberculosis , but in 1902 we lost twice the number per 10,000 of mean population. So we in New Zealand must again feel proud of our Health Department. Fortunate Country. The Director General of Health says " e have the lowest death rate in the world from this disease. But we must not h + d a wall of self-complacency anil satisfaction around this country because of that lact. If possible we must stamp the disease right out. It would be the greatest’ advertisement this tliil r Y COuld have i£ could stamp this disease out. Having stamped it out o man we coukl set out to clean up our animals. The day we can advertise to the world that all our cows the [ rora , the disease we shall top ° Ur f butU ' r ’ Tubercer van be £ a°dTsLasfof' oUI -He. Not that old aged people Ja.rnot

get tuberculosis or young people cancer, but speaking generally. In all countries where housing is bad overcrowding and all that sort of thing, this parasite of tuberculsos flourishes. Japan’s death rate from this disease is four as great as-in New Zealand In England and Wales it is twice as many. Austria is five times as many. And even in Australia it is slightly higher than New Zealand. Hats off to our Health Department.