Importance of Early Treatment

Te Ao Hou, December 1956, Page 62

Importance of Early Treatment Though a very great deal can now be done for those who have tuberculosis, it is most essential to co-operate fully with the advice given by the doctors and nurses if the best results are to be obtained and if the spread of infection is to be checked as rapidly as possible. Sometimes the advice is not taken at all. Sometimes it is only half-heartedly carried out. In either case the results can be disastrous. Even within recent months, I have seen three tragedies occur because my advice about treatment was not carried out. Disease which could have been cured has become quite incurable. Furthermore infection for others is very likely to persist. Both of these circumstances need not have arisen if only advice about treatment had been accepted at the beginning. I want to say, and say it most emphatically, that the modern treatments for tuberculosis, faithfully carried out, can and do achieve absolute miracles of healing in the right kind of case. But it takes time; it requires whole-hearted co-operation; it means doing what the doctor thinks best. It is no use going into hiding or trying to put things off, or making some half-hearted compromise about treatment. The best time for treatment and the opportunity to use the best kind of treatment may be lost for ever. The only wise thing to do is to accept the doctor's decision about the treatment needed and the place where it is best carried out. When this is done we are very unlikely to see the sad tragedies I have mentioned. On the other hand, we are likely to see most marvellous healing of disease. This is especially true of early cases. When the disease is chronic and has been present for a long time before the patient is first seen, the results cannot be so good. But even then we can patch up somewhat. In early disease, however, the results are often amazingly good. In some cases the disease seems to disappear entirely. This leads me to my next point, the need for early discovery which is a very important factor in the control of tuberculosis. Now early discovery is really important because treatment of early disease is so very successful and because the risk of infecting others with tuberculosis is greatly reduced. A great part of this early discovery lies in two things. Firstly there is the use of X-rays. Secondly there is a need to pay heed to what I call the Warning Signals.