The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1915-06-11
The Situation, Today.

IL HE question OF reducing the ravages Of tuber-
culosis in Hawaii Is simply question of
money intelligently used In the tuberculosis bu-.
reau of the board Of health with the assistance Of
the various sanitaria supported wholly or in part
by private philanthropy, we have the intelligence
to use whatever funds may be provided As yet
the amount Of money available for preventative
and curative work has never been sufficient to
meet the need, y M s
Here is the situation in Hawaii today--and Ha4
wall has never been so prosperous as il is today,
thanks to the folly Of men who brought about the
war in Europe: = III. stt. !,
Every sanitariun in, the Territory is filled to
capacity Every sanitaruni is caring today for
more patients than estimatedj makesIiifts and
emergency funds being called Upon Every sapi-
ltarium has reached its maximum limit. At the
Leah Home this morning are tiirteen tubefcular
patients on the waiting Est six of the ho6ieles
Two were found by the board Of health men sleep
ing in the parks. Last night one boy, Suffering
from recent hemorrhage slept in the street,
Those with whom he had been living, aipoor fam-
lily occupying only one tenement room for man,
wife and three children, decided that they could
not further endanger their children by having him
also share the one room, as they have been doing.
The Leah Home is caring for two more patients.
than its fund justihes. The city is paying for
twenty patients, two more than 1t had contracted
to pay for over the emergency limit The Korean
National Association is providing sleeping place
for four tubercuar Koreans, but declines to run
chances by allowing these four to have their meals
in the association building The association, in
stead, supplies the patients with small amount
+ to live on--and the four get their meals in the
cheap restaurants The Palama Settlement and
the Associated Charities have exhausted their tt-
berculosis emergency AUTHORIZATIONS and each is
~
"A yeafsago a benefit baseball game was played
between the All4C Chinese and the CALIFORNIA;, which
Melted the, Leah Home emergency fund something
like fourteen hundred dollars. This fund has cared
for emergency cases to the number of fifty, and
dozen people are alive today because of the fact
Of that fund. At the present time four Of the
Leahi Home patients are being cared for from
that fund, but it will be exhausted by the end OF
the present month. ..,<S. Is, s...
1t must not be inferred that the tuberculosis sit
uaton is growing worse. 1t is not; it is growing
better, The knowledge of SO many cases is only
the result of the investigation work being sys-
tematically carried on and the result Of the wide
publicity that has been given by the tuberculosis
bureau to the fact that tuberculosis is durable
dis ase, even when it has gone far Where, short
time ago, many with tuberculosis refused to ac-
cept treatment and spurned the offers Of assis-
tance now the sick are coming ito the board of
health authorities and to the mission and charity
workers and appealing for treatment and aid
In Honolulu, where the hardest work has been
done and where conditions make the best work
possible the death rate from tuberculosis last year
was cut down twenty per cent. In the rest Of the
Territory it was held at a small gain over the
previous year. There are today -l0l6 registered
cases of tuberculosis in Hawaii, and II the good
work of the past couple of years can be main
fa;, r. n
known, and with the knowledge can come better
supervision---if the money be available.
10, What, if anything, is to besdone about it?
H., , -------e<-~----