The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1915-04-09
Catching tuberculosis, or
Infection.


sis means very real danger not
only to his real life but TO the lives
of his wife and children as well.
His weather. neighbor may lay
aside his routine cares and take
the cure" for tuberculosis without
materially affecting his family's
health or income. The consump-
tive workingman, on the other
hand, must give up his job and
with it his only income, and at the
same time he is frequently COM
PEELED to remain at home, con-
slant source of danger to his family
unless he is properly instructed.
1t may save you who read this arti-
Gle considerable money and suffer
ing if you learn from it how to
avoid the entrance of tuberculosis
into your body.
Tuberculosis is infectious and
communicable from one person TO
another. 1t differs in some re-
spects from scarlet fever, measles,
or smallpox, so-called contagious
diseases, in that tuberculosis re-
quires repeated exposures and GER
tain special conditions to pass the
germs from the sick to the well.
1t is rot inherited, but must be
communicated through one of the
following sources from one person
to another:
G) The infection is derived in
the very large majority of cases
from the sputum discharged from
open or ulcerating. tubercles in
the lungs.
4 (2) A certain number of per-
sons, chiefly infants, estimated va
riously from one to ten per cent Of
all cases, receive the infection from
the milk of tuberculous cows
(3) A very few others may pos
sibly obtain the infection from the
urine and fecal discharges of con-
sumptives or from the pus joints or
other parts of the body which are
the seat of ulcerating tuberculosis.
/ (4) In few extremely rare in
stances the infection is conveyed
through the blood of the mother to
an unborn child, but the offspring
seldom survive long.
co No infection can be coz
veyed from tuberculosis of the
closed" or non liberated variety,
or after alterations are completely
healed.
With regard to the manner of
Infection, still bearing in mind that
tuberculosis must be communicated
from one person to another, we find
that by far the most frequent mode
of infection is by inhalation; the
second is by swallowing, and the
least common, by innoculation of
would or abrasin. Considering
each of these modes of infection a
little more carefully, we learn that;
(D The bacilli are inhaled most
often in dust, The dust is most
often contaminated by careless spit
ting; hut the germs may also be
given out in the act of coughing
with the mouth unprotected) or
hawking, sneezing, loud talking,
singing or laughing. Quiet breath
ing carries no infection.
(2) The baccilli may be swal-
lowed with food which has been
contaminated with infected hands
or otherwise, and also with the
milk, butter, and other dairy pro-
ducts derived from cows suffering
from bovine tuberculosis.
(3) incubation by the infection
of cuts, scratches, or abrasions is
not frequently observed.
While no age, race, or class is
immune against infection from tu-
berculosis, children are more sus-
ceptible than anyone else. At the
age of l5. frequently as high as rs
per cent. of the population may
show the presence of the germs,
though not that many may be sick
with tuberculosis. In view, how
ever, of the fact that these germs