Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-10-01
THOUSANDS MENACED
tuberculosis Patients Eating at Puh'ic
Restaurants and Sleeping at Hotels
Endanger others-county Hospitals
the Only Practical Solution.

Des Moines. Oct. l-Sleeping in one
of the hotels and eating At various
restaurants and eating places is a man
WAC Is afflicted with tuberculosis AMI
pronounced iacurable by The best med
.cal authorities. This mans case IL
lustrates IN concrete form me b.sges,
a1obiem the stale mas u face in re-
gard 70 tuberculosis. and one that thus
far is unSolved ana for which there
is nor even d good sugges tion as - 4
solution
The problem is wha, 10 do with the
incu~ables, Il Is admitted ny the best
authorities that in the last stages Of
i1curab.e is more dangerous 20 socie-y
oy scattering Infection than al any
other time If there were Just few
Of there the problem would not amount
10 much but there are SEQ IN he state
of Iowa. The entire population of all
the state hospitals. penitenuaries ara
schools is about 5000 inmates. To pro-
vide place in which TO house ana
Keep $500 incurable tubercular pa
uents the state would have 10 erect
buildings that would house a populn-
ton of more than one-fourIh of the
present population Of all the state In
situations. II would probably cost 81
10000 to 5000 900 and TO do il in any
thing less than twenty-five years is en-
tirely beyond question Long before
twenty-five years elapses tuberculosis
should be eradicated from the state.
The Des Moines man for whom there
is no place is a printer who for twenty
FIVE years has paid his dues to the in
ternauonal union Tubercuiar patients
are sent to the printers home in COL
orado Springs but not the incuraoie.
For those there is no room. The state
hospital at oakdale has room for but
+ q couple Of hundred and so Of course
they will admit none but the durable
there. Besides the question of room
for the patients these institutions do
not want the incarable around because
Of The Infection. ard in the case Of the
Des Moines printer he has no relatives
with whom he can stay
AS natural result ne is staying at
hotel in Des Moinees and eating al
restaurants, using napkins that are
subsequently used by other people. and
ii will be a miracle if others do lot
!
Des Moines printers union Is paying al
4 his expenses and caring for him as
we'll as possible a committee from
the union has hunted everywhere tc
find a place for the man where fs
could stay properly but have been uii
successful and the only explanation o:
20 his staying at the hotels Is ne mus
stay some place" all Of which is q
course true.
| state officials believe that in the .ace
of the fact that there are $500 incur,
able tubercular persons in the stat'
the only solution is for each county I
take the matter UP and build place
in which they can be kept Thes
might be maintained adjoining thos
in which the durable are kept. Onl.
BY each county taking up the war u
tuberculosis can the disease be stampe'
out in the opinion OF all the state OF
ncials who have given the matte
study There are so many afflicted tina
it viii be impossible for the state I
cope with the problem alone and IN
less the incurable are kept from nixint
, with the public ii is feared the diseas
can never be stamped out Il is he
leyed Furthermore that il such actiol
was taken TO keep them out Of publ
places very rapid progress would =
made against the disease.
The average life of a .ubercular pa
tent is three years. The second yea
the patient is able u do about half
mans work and the third year Is abb
, to do no work at all 1t is ea~sil
shown that the LOGS of labor Of ti1e.'
$500 people for the third year wi
make s2.0c0,co0 at least and this none
!, would soon provide them places to sta
if there was any way of getting it.