The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-12-19
UNABLE TO secure
NECESSARY MONEY
Army of COnSumptiveS in This
Country Too Poor to OBJ
tain Treatment.

Sixteen states and territories Of the
United States provide no place where the
poor consumptive can be treated, except
in jails and insane asylums. This state
ment5 together with another, to the ef-
feet that not one ia thirty Of the victims
OF consumption who want to get III hos
pitfalls can find place there, fact which
VIII mean loss to the country Of S1,2l5,-
100000, is made by the National AssOcia-
ton for the Study and Prevention OF
tuberculosis in a bulletin issued today.
The national association states that
there are in the United States at least
100000 cOnsumpuves who are so poor that
they cannot pay for proper medical treat
ment IN tuberculosis sanatOTiums and hos
pitfalls. Some of them can pay small
amounts week for their maintenance,
but the great majority of them cannot
pay anything. For this large class Of pa
uents the entire country has provided
only 10000 beds Tor the free treatment OF
tuberculosis. In Alabama, Arkansas,
Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi Montana,
Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ore
gOn, Philippine Islands South Dakota,
Texas, Utah, West Virginia and WyO-
ming there is no place where the con
SumptlVe without means can be treated
but in jalls OF insane asylums, and in
most cases he viii get no treatment there.
Sixteen other states provide less than
fifty beds each for poor consumptives. In
only two states, Massachusetts and New
L
patients been provided. so that at least
one TN ten may find place for treatment
In many of the other states, not one in
fifty Of the destitute cOnsumptives can
find a bed in a hospital or sanatOrium.
1t costs on an average about $50 to
cure an incipient C0nsUmptive or to care
for an advanced case until death. If he
is left in destitute circumstances, without
proper attention, he viii surely infect
with his disease at least two other per-
sons, and possibly many more. COnsid-
ering that the average life is worth to
society in dollars and cents about Sl500,
the net loss which would accrue to
community by not treating its poor con-
sumtives in proper institutions would be
for each case, including those who are
unnecessarily infected, at the very lowest
figure $3.50. On this basis, If the poor
COnsumptives i'm the United States who
are now sick were segregated from their
families and either kept in institutions
until they died, or else cured Of their
disease, the saving to the country would
be the enormous sum Of 1925, 900.
Consumption is primarily poor mans
disease. DR.. Woods Hutchinson of New
York City says: Roughly speaking, the
incipient tuberculOus patient can buy as
many chances of fresh air and cure as
he has money The percentage Of deaths
from consumption among the poor is 100
per cent higher than among the well-tO>
do and the rich. Sixty-fiVe per cent Of
the cOnsumptiVes in the United States
are TOO poor 10 provide proper means Tor
treatment. They must either be placed
in sanatOrium or a hospital where they
can be cured Of their disease and where
they viii be removed from the POSSIBLE
ity of injecting other members of their
families, or the loss resulting from neg
lect to care for these poor cOnsumptives
viii be twice or three times as great as
would be the case il they were property
housed in Institutions.
The National Association fer the Study
ion Ian
that if every county or township should
erect an institution for the treatment of
INDECENT cases of consumption, this dis
ease would be wiped out in a few years.