The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-01-07
CONSUMPTION INFECTIOUS.
To Bring the Disease Under Sanitar.
Surveillance.

One of the most important reports
ever submitted to the board of health
Of this city is that in relation to tu-
bercalosis. DR.. Biggs refers to the
high mortality from this disease-over
5000 in 1S92-as indubitable evidence
Of the necessity for bringing it under
The sanitary surveillance of the de-
partment. The argument is unanswer-
able. If there had been 5000 deaths
in this town from cholera during the
same period it would have been re-
garded as a plague spot, and 1892
would have gone on record in black
letter as year of pestilence With
the same mortality from tuberculosis.
and with kindred diseases like bron-
chitis and pneumonia. fatal in a cor
responding degree, there is no public
alarm, although the prevalence of these
ScourgeS points unelTingly to their
infectious nature. For this popular
apathy in the presence of appalling
diseases the boards of health and the
medical profession are largely respon-
sible. They have neglected to face
facts which are in plain sight, and to
warn the community that tuberculo-
SIS is an infectious disease directly
communicable in the sick room from
Cctient to nurse and friends.
l)r. Biggs raises an alarm signal in
his report He contends that tuber-
culosiS is q contagious disease, and is
distinctly preventable; that it is &C
quired by direct transmission of the
tubercle bacili from the sick to the
well, usually by means of the dried
and puiverized Sputum floating as dust
in the air, and that it can be largely
prevented by simple methods of dis
Infection. These conclusions are ac-
-
lions for securing official surveillance
OF the disease. One of TIE measures
which he advises is the establishment of
a coEsumptive hospital for exclusive
treatment of the disease. Another is
the isolation of patients suffering from
pulmonary consumption in public hos
pitfalls. Other recommendations favor
concerted action between physicians
and the sanitary authorities, by which
meteorological examinations of sputum
can be conducted in private houses
and tenements.
When DR., Koch's conclusions re-
sepecting the origin and infectiouSnesS
Of consumption were announced, a COM
mlttee of the British Medical associa-
lion addressed circular to the profess
sion inviting opinions respecting the
communicating of the disease. AL
though the theory was then a novel
one. there were POI replies tending to
confirm II and giving practical illus
tra,tions Of the infectious nature of the
disease. A large majority of these
cases were Instances of the commune
cability of the disease from husband
to wife or from wife to husband. In
$50 out of 1872 cases of this nature those
to whom the disease was impaired had
no predispoSing faint or tendency. One
man who contracted consumption from
his wife communicated it in turn to
a servant nursing him. Another in
stance indicated the spread of the dis
ease from q young man to his sister,
who took care of him, and then from
her TO a companion IN excellent health
One of the best known cases reccr-
led IN the medical books is that of a
consuhptiye French dressmaker, who
lived in a cottage ard piled her trade
She had three apprentices, young wom-
~ Of different families and in robust
health. Each in turn remained over
night In the cottage a week at a time
and Shared the dressnaker's bed. The
iressmaler died of consumption after
prorracted illness. Each of the an
prentices contracted the disease from
aer and died in the course of a few
fears.
The medical profession is aware of
he infectious nature of consumption,
q the terrors of this dreadful scourge
20 the terrors of this deradful scourge
,y telling the truth about it. When
1000 patients are dying annually IN