The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1911-07-14

Three years ago the Bratteboro Wo
mans club became interested in the fear
full waste of life due to tuberculosis. We
are told that this disease can be cured il
taken in time and that it is preventable
and yet million people die from it every
year, one every three minutes in the
| United States In Brattleboro, for the five
! years, 1906 to 1911, 80 deaths were re
! corded as due to tuberculosis. Six of these
were in the Retreat. OF the remaining 30,
80 were due to pulmonary tuberculosis, or
consumption. This, is six deaths year;
not large number compared with Bos-
tons 200 or New York's 10000, and not
a high death rate-it is less than one per
thousand while Boston's is nearer two, and
New Works three; but six deaths year
from disease that is "curable and pre-
ventable" is six too many, and when one
remembers the months of suffering and
sorrow that precede every death, six
deaths a year, or even one, becomes un-
bearable.
Stirred by such facts. and inspired by
the great international tuberculosis con-
gress, to which they sent delegate, the
Woman's club started out to help mitigate
the scourge in Brattleboro The commun
ity contributed, and the Thompson Trust
lent its aid nurse was engaged to show
people with the disease how to care for
themselves in their homes and how to pro-
feet others, and in 1909 the camp was
opened.
This year. for the first time, the camp
kept open through the winter, and on the
first of June completed its first full year.
During the IL months, IA patients received
treatment. The average stay at the camp
was % weeks, five of the IA patients are
still. there; six were discharged by their
doctors as cured two as improved, and
one, who was in the last stages of the dis
ease when she came to the camp, was sent
home unimproved, and has since died.
Eleven of the patients gained in weight an
average of liz pounds; two lost an aver
age of six pounds; one was there only two
days, so that her weight did not change
The prize patient, who was in an advanced
stage of the disease when she came, gained
80 pounds in 40 weeks, three-quarters of a
pound week. The average age of the pa
tients was 25.S years. Eight were women,
six men: IL were born in the United
States; eight had lived in Brattleboro an
average of 16 years; six had lived here two
years or less.
The running expenses of the camp for
the year were 1920, or $3.50 per patient
per day. Of this 291a per cent went for
food, 81 per cent for salaries and wages |
The National Association for the Study |
and Prevention of tuberculosis published |
a bulletin year ago showing that the av-
erage cost in 80 tuberculosis sanataria in
all parts of the United States was $167
per patient per day, the lowest being 95 |
cents, the highest 1886 One-third of the
annual expenditures was shown to go for
food, one-third for salaries and wages. The
average cost for food per patient per day
was "a cents, while in Brattleboro it was
a cents; the average cost for salaries and
wages per patient per day was As cents,
while in Brattleboro it was 81 cents. But
to compare an institution which averages
Eve patients with institutions which aver
age 72 is not fair. There are certain
expenses which have to be
met whether there are few or many pa
tents. The Brattleboro camp, for instance,
needed horse, man, cook, and two