The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-12-11


voiced protest.
Yet tuberculosis is killing as many
rs plague or cholera combined.
Can il be too radical, when no other
means will stop its spread under our
present knowledge of the diseasef
The Enormous Amount Of Money
Required.
It would undoubtedly cost an enor-
nous amount of money, yet in ques-
ton involving the lives Of the people,
in preventive medicine, the cost is not
considered by any far.seeing, intelligent
law making body, il the result will just
ify the expenditure.
DIR. G. c. Browning, Medical Director
of Pottenger Sanitarium in an article
on "Public Provision for incipient
cases of tuberculosis, etc, says:
els il profitable for the public to
provide sanatoria and dispensaries7
Tuberculosis claims most of its vie.
tins during the most valuable age to
the state, during the reproductive pc.
riod and the period of productive
labor.
Biggs estimates the value of n hu
| man life to the state at this period at
! $500, and think this is not excessive.
Based on this, let us consider the none
tary value to the state Of a sanatorium
for incipient cases.
Basing this estimate on the work of
| the Massachusetts State Sanitarium mt
Rutland, the first state sanitarium to
| be established, we find about so per
cent. of all patients received are dis
! charged as apparently cured and 40
per cent. more improved. This percent
| age, no doubt, would be greater were
the cases treated confined to the in
| cipient stage.
If for each one hundred patients
treated for an average length of time
of six months, fifty are discharged
cured and forty improved so that they
are restored to their earning capacity
| for an average of one year only, we
have basis on which to compute the
value to the state of sanitarium if
they are saved, or the loss to the state
if the disease runs an uninterrupted
course.
Furthermore, if the disease continues
to fatal determination there is a period
of time of loss of earning power, which
may be conservatively stated at ten
months, and another period during
| WHICH IHey HluSJ nave CdTt anu UTtdl-
ment form others. If we place the loss
of wages for ten months at $1.50 per
day and care for six months $1.50 per
day additional, we have items of ex-
pense which should be added to the
above. We will have:
Fifty cases restored, valued
at $500 each. .$75, 100000
Wages, 80 people, 10 months,
260 days at $3.50. ...... 100000
Care of 80 people, 6 months,
, $50 dayss, at $1,5Q,,,,,,,, 13,5OO.O0
| Forty persons restored to
earning capacity for one
sear-S13 days-at $3.50. 23,475.O0
Total amount saved to the
the state each 6 months
for each 100 persons treat
ed Observation-Disclosures. .$131, ,475,Oo
An average weekly saving
for each patient treated
months .............s 5O.5U
If we estimate the average =.
weekly cost of caring for
patients at 1880
We have a gain per week
for, each patient. ....... $500
Or for each 100 patients con-
: tinuously under treatment
for an average of 6
! months we will have
$500 49,. $685., 10000
Saved to the state for each
, year per 100 constantly un-
der treatment.
If it is supposed that half Of these
might have obtained these results with
out public aid, may we not balance this
with the reasonable probability that
each patient who dies of tuberculosis
infects one other personf
l believe these estimates to be con
servative and that the actual none
! tary value to the state greater than
! here estimated, not to mention the
suffering saved.'
, Will the people abide by such rules
or lawsl l think they will. To sub
stantiate this, every sanitarium that il
conducted by the government, or by
) charity, in the states is today over
crowded, with many on the waiting
!, list.
/ recall now two cases of tubercu
losis who waited over two years II
obtain admission to sanitarium il
8 Pennsylvania, and this sanitariun
, charged So per week.
The general public is beginning t.
. awaken to the great havoc tubercu
losis is making with them.
As an indication of the trend o
public sentiment, ! read somewhere re
}. Gently that now most all newspaper
d will accept and print any article n
matter of what length dealing wit
! tuberculosis.
e 1t shows the reading public, conse
IL quentiy the thinking public, is alive t
N the danger from tuberculosis infection
Naturally, there will be some agains
a, it, but is there any good, sound measur
"a that does not meet with oppositionl
er What will become of the family G
the PATIENT
Should it be the daily wage-earnt
or of the family that is afflicted, thu
v leaving the family in want, what sha
in be done theni a
er i say let the government, city, cou