Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-10-17
WILL ERADICATE
| CONSUME TON IN
!. STATE IN 81 YEARS
No tuberculosis, Says Newark
err, if Present Rate of De-
crease Continues.

If the death rate in New jersey
from pulmonary tuberculosis can b'
+ reduced during the next forty years
in the same degree it has been re-
duced in the past thirty-four years
the State will practically be free OF
& consumption.
That was the conclusion of Ernest
D. Easton, executive secretary of the
Newark Acknowledgements Assoeia-
ton, expressed in an address yester-
day at the FIRST annual meeting OF the
New Jersey Anti tuberculosis League
in the Hotel Walton at Philadelphia
About fifty were present. Mr. Easton
said, in part:
I'VE have one State sanatorium in
New Jersey, which has about two
+ hundred beds, and we have only SIX
+ county sanatoria, which have. or soon
will have, about four hundred beds,
although a law was passed two and
one-half years ago making 1T compul-
sorry for all of our twenty-one coun-
ties to erect hospitals. In addition,
there are six hospitals or sanatoria
with accommodations for Hhout SIX
hundred, making a total - ABOUT
eight hundred beds for all tuberculosis
patients in New Jersey, not including
the beds in our aSylums, reformato-
ries and prisons, where there are about
two hundred beds for the tubercuious.
With one thousand beds for our
thirty-six hundred deaths from pull
monary tuberculosis, there is only one
bed for every three and one-halr
deatbs: or If there are Ave times as
tut,
have one bed for every eighteen
living cases.
I'm addition there are eight open
air schools which are fitted up with
beds Or reclining chairs and accom-
modations for about $50 pupils. In
MANY respects these children get the
same kind of treatment as in a hos
'pifal. with the additional advantage
that the home also benefits from the
instruction received at school and the
visits made by the nurse.
Where are thirty-six associations
doing local work in New Jersey and
there are twenty-three nurses in the
State doing tuberculosis work in the
homes. employed by the local associa-
lion or the Board of Health. This
means that each nurse would have on
an. average about five hundred cases,
or about three times more than any
nurse would be expected to do. Elev-
en- of these thirty-six associations
were organized during the past year
and have done some effective work.
"A questionafre was recently sent
70 ali associations over the State One
of the questions was What is the
greatest need at present" The re-
plies were pretty evenly divided be-
tween county sarra toria for advanced
cases of tuberculosis and open air
schools One requested county
nurse, two urged more interest on the
part of the citizens. especially among
doctors in reporting cases, two ex7
pressed the need of more education
and money and one suggested relief
work.
Il believe there is hardly an assoc
citation in the State but feels that
much more might be accomplished
through the general education OF the
public. We are indebted to the State
Board of Health for their generous
campaign with exhibits, motion pic
ture slides, etc. Nearly all feel the
necessity for increased accommoda-
tions in hospitals, sanatoria or open
air schools. One of the hopeful signs
is that we are looking for the ade-
uuate care of the advanced case. The
compulsory removal law has been en-
forced a few times, which indicates
that public sentiment is growing in
favor of isolation of the dangerous
patient
I'm taking the State as whole we
find that the death rate from pull
monarv tuberculosis has steadily de-
creased from "a per 10000 in 1880. to
1874. in 1872 the last State report
available. If this decrease can be
maintained for the next forty years
we shall have practically no tubercu-
losis in the State of New Jersey. In
making our estimates ii has seemed
best to take the State as a whole
rather than individual counties.
While the death rate in some coun-
ties is much lower than the death
rate for the state. as whole, there
are many things which are hard to
explain in figures or charts. For in
stance, the death rate in Essex coun-
ty might be much larger there than
in many other counties, owing to
hospital facilities, which other coun-
ties may not have. Patients and
their families often move where they
can receive these increased advant-
ages. Because Cape May county
happens to have the lowest death
rate IL would not necessarily mean
that that county Is the healthiest
place in which to live or that 1t is
tuberculosis.
rowing to the fact that doctors
are reporting cases more freely than
heretofore. the opinion Is current in
some places that the disease is on
the increase, but the statutes of the
State Board of Health would not in
dictate that for the state as whole"