Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-08-26
PREVENTION VS.. CURE.

Iowa legislature a bill will probably
be introduced providing for the estab'
lishment within the state of santa
rum for, the treatment of tuberculosis
patients. 1t will be backed by large
majority of the doctors in Iowa and
similar action by sister states fur
nishes precedent. On first glance
the plan cannot but look like good
one, but it is best to consider such
move from every standpoint, and there
are facts in connection with this idea
which indicate that state sanitarium
for consumptives is not the best way
to fight the white plague.
1 An ounce of prevention is worth
pound of cure. This is an old maxim
but time has failed to prove its fall
sity. 1t is doubly true of tuberculosis.
so we'll informed medical authorities
unhesitatingly aver, for the most
marked characteristic of this disease
Is its ability to withstand treatment.
Indeed, until comparatively short
time ago, able physicians differed as
to the possibility of it's cure some de-
claring such thing absolutely impos,
sible
Since 1t is admittedly better to pre-
vent than to try to cure the malady,
why would not campaign aimed at
its prevention be of more real benefit
! to the greatest number of people than
!, the establishment Of sanitarium
| where only victims of the disease could
/ be treated? A campaign of education
rightly conducted would be of benefit
to every one. and would strike at the
( root of the disease.
Consumption is a disease peculiar
to ITSELF No one is immune. though
some people prove easier victims than
others. A man can contract the dis
ease, enter sanitarium, regain good
health and then go back to the same
old environments that surrounded him
before he took treatment, and there
contract the disease again. With q
sanitarium provided he could do that
very thing and two months after be
ing discharged as cured he would be
in worse condition than when first
taken as patient. The cause would
remain in the same old place and any
one who visited that place would lay
himself liable to the disease.
1t is truly the mission of the physi
clan to cure, but it is higher and {
nobler mission to prevent disease
Some of the doctors in Iowa realize
this fact and they are against the prop
osition for state sanitarium fol
consumptives. This is not to say tina
those who are for the sanitarium plal
are neglecting their best and highes
duty The Courier has no figh
with them in this matter, but believes
that if they will look at the question
from all sides the sanitarium plan will
lose much Of it's popularity. To b.
sure, sanitarium would be splendi,
as an adjunct to the campaign for tn
prevention of the disease but as tn
principal agent Of the campaign i
would fail to accomplish as much goo
for the same amount of money as a.
educational campaign among the pee
pie of the state.
This last statement is not made ur
advisedly. A well known Ottumw
physician is authority for the state
ment that people will pay proper a
tention to the quarantine laws and tn
laws of health if they are given tn
right instructions and told of the dir
effects that must invariably follow
failure to give these laws attention
Literature placed in the hands of a
the physicians by the state board c
health, and distributed wisely b
them, could be the means Of cleansin
many hovel and possible refuge fc
disease germs. In addition to thi
fact, the campaign of education coul
include preventives for other disease
than consumption, while sanitariu1
would give an opportunity to tree
nothing but it. The greatest possibl
good for the greatest possible numbe
Of people is the object at which ever
sanitary measure should aim
In connection with the state SAINT;
rum plan it is well to consider tn
people who are to be aided. If sal
itarium were established it woul
have as patients people who could a
ford to go to other climates for trea
ment, but would it have the poor {
Iowa, who cannot afford to see
health resorts in the south and we!
when tuberculosis attacks them? TIL;
is the class of people state la
should aim to reach, but the stat
sanitarium plan would not do it {
well as an educational campaign, ca
ried on tirelessly and intelligently /
health officers and physicians gene