The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1909-03-04
AT THE STATE SAAlTORlUM
EIGHTY PER CENT or TUBERcu
LAR PATIENTS CURED.
Results Obtained at oakdate Encour
age Authorities to a Stronger
Fight Against Consumption.

Des Moines, Feb. 27--In an effort
to curtail the annual exodus OF hun
dreds Of citizens TO western states and
to afford relief to those whose finan-
cial condition renders effective treat
ment here or elsewhere impossible
the Iowa State Legislature three years
ago decided to provide an institution
for the treatment Of tuberculosis.
The State Sanitorium located al
Oakdale, near Iowa City, was opened
to patients on Feb. i, 1908. For the
year just ended, two hundred and
thirty-six patients have been admit.
ted, having reached its capacity in
November with an average of n pa
tients. During the year more thar
400 have been turned away, as toe
far advanced to be received. OF the
total number accepted only thirty-three
or fourteen per cent, proved to be in
cipient or early cases, and of this
class eighty per cent, who remained
over two months, We're sent home APP
parently cured. ~, 49,
ped for the treatment of incipienl
cases only, but while room was avail
able the more favorable of the ad
vanced cases were accepted on tria
| for treatment. OF these ninety pei
cent who remained two months, show
ed marked improvement, Such graft
flying results Justify making provis
| ion for the treatment of this class Of
patients. -.:. E..% +Na
The statement that tuberculosis
strikes down those of greatest value
to society Is abundantly proven by
| the fact that of the z36 admitted fol
treatment LOG, or near fifty per cent
were between the ages of twenty ant
| thirty years. While generous appro
priations are being made each year
for the support of education how much
| more important Is it that equally lib
eral expenditure be approved by the
state for the eradication of a disease
which is leVying its toll of death an
nually upon hundreds of young citi
zens just as they are prepared to en-
ter the most productive period of life
People from all over the state have
been astonished at many of the re
markahle results observed in friends
who have been patients at Oakdale
This will be readily understood from
the fact tina many have returned
home who have gained from twenty
FIVE to forty pounds, with correspond
/ ing improvement in their lungs.
So accustomed have people become
to look upon the West as the only
place where lung trouble can be sue
cessfully combatted that it is with diff
| ficulty they can be convinced that this
| Is but another popular fallacy which
medical science long since exploded.
Three patients who have done this
write after several months sojourn il
the West that they have not done SC
well there. One, physician from
the southern part of the state, after
five months in Colorado writes, Tel
the patients in the sanitorium they
are better off there than here" Tc
many Iowa people it is a revelation
that consumption can be cured at all
To many others it is a greater revela
ton that it can be successfully treat
ed without severing the friendships
and associations of a life time and mi.
grating to some far off land where
hope lends faith to the fancy that by
some phenomenon of nature relief may
be obtained without regard to the
rules laid down by medical science.
The sanitorium is effecting cures
1t is doing more. 1t is educating the
people of Iowa to the necessities of
the work undertaken and pointing the
way to what is certain in Iime TO re
suit in at least partial eradication
of the Great White Plague. 1t is dis
seminating a knowledge of sanitation
which will minimize infection and re.
move the necessity for treatment on
so broad a scale.