Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1916-08-04
JUST 1000 DEATHS.

mere were just 400O deaths IN tn
State last year from tuberculosis, i
some form, chiefly pulmonary, nc
cording to recent statement sen
out by the tuberculosis Association
in Richmond. This distressing condi
ton seems to create little alarm
among the people, the doctors in
cluded, judging from appearances
Coming down to the facts, What Cal
the doctors, who constitute on
health authorities, do in the pre-
misses? When smallpox, scarlet fever
typhoid fever, or diphtheria appear
In the community, the doctors tax,
necessary steps to stamp out the d
seaSe by vaccination, nnti-toXin. quar-
antine, etc, and are generally sue.
cessful. They use such means ant
such authority as the town and state
laws place in their hands. But the
most dreaded of all scourges, the
scourge which is as certain to end
in death, as can be, scourge as
deadly as bullet from u 44-caliber
gun at close range, seems to lie abso-
lutte master of the situation. The
Board of Health of the counties seem
powerless County Boards of Super
visors are Indifferent, or don't know
what to do. The Supervisors are not
elected to look after sick people, or
to prevent disease and pauperism,
but to take care of the INDECENT poor
i'll county poor houses. The ounce of
prevention is not worth n pound of
cure, in their system and methods.
They turn all this matter of cpl
denies and disease over to the Board
of Health, and the Board of Health
asks "What can we do?" One ply
sician says, when the cases come to
our notice and knowledge the di-
sease has already passed beyond the
stage where medical treatment or
any other treatment, an do any good
And that is true A consumptive is
slow to believe that he has the con-
sumption, and the case goes on until
death is only question of time
About all the physician can do, which
is not always done, is to advise and
warn as to the spread of the malady
and do what he can to enforce his
orders. And in nine cases out of ten
the family cannot or will not follow
his directions, and the patient spreads
the disease to others in the COM
munity, thereby becoming a menace
not only to his own immediate fam
lily, but to every family in his entire
community. Well, what are we going
to do about it? This is the problem
One thing, we have n sanitarium al
ready built and equipped at Catawba
where consumptives are treated and
cared for, and in the majority of
cases, cured. True, the Accommodations
there are entirely inadequate to ac-
comodate all who apply There is a
long waiting" list, which means. as
rule, waiting" for the undertaken
The authorities are making an effort
to increase the number of buildings
there, and the counties of the State
should furnish the money.
Another suggestion-there might
be special building on every county
farm in the State where these un.
1ortunates could be taken and cared
Tor. We have case right here ir
town now that the authorities "don't
Know what to do with" A cheap. oper
room on the county farm would solve
thls part of the problem. "But, this
means n nurse and moneyl" OF
course, but not as much money rs
these cases scattered through the
town and county will cost in the end
Again--it is of the greatest i'm.
portance that the consumptive be tax.
en- IN charge in time, if a cure is to
be hoped for. How are we to get a
these folks who never let their case:
be known or send for physician unit
they get down, and then it is too lat,
TO DO them any good? This is anothe,
problem. We regulate smallpox, diph
theria' mad-dogs, sheep-kllng dogs
and number of other things by law
but no one seems to have thought O.
'ntroiling the worst of all disease
by lava disease worse than len
rosy, because easily spread and dis
seminated. After all, this editoria
gets nowhere, perhaps. We did no
purpose or hope in the beginning t.
solve problem or point way OH
OF difficulty which, so far, has baf
fled the Boards of Health and tn
physicians.