The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-10-21
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL :
INFOR MA TON
Blu RE All
FREDERIC. J. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, D. c.
FIGHTING THE WHITE PLAGUE
IN TFIE. ARMY
Washington, D. C


pitfalls thruout the country to take care
of tubercular soldiers and sailors. A
bill providing an initial appropriation
for the immediate leasing and building
OF hospitals Is now before congress,
and is receiving the energetic support
of both the public health service and
the war risk insurance bureau. The
construction of hospitals and sani
toria cannot begin too quickly, accord
ing to these bureaus. There is al
ready desperate need of them.
The war risk insurance bureau now
has over $500 tuberculosis patients on
its compensation lists. but this is only
a small percentage OF the number of
men actually discharged from the
army with this disease. The army
estimate is 5000. Due to a lack of
knowledge of their rights, many of
these men have made no claim for a
disability compensation. Apparently.
they are being turned back into civil
life, disabled, dependent on their own
resources. and often unable to secure
necessary care and treatment.
AS the war goes on, more and more
cases will develop. Upon the basis of
previous discharges, it is figured that
in our proposed army of nearly five
million men at least $4,000 tubercu-
losis cases will be discharged by the
end of the next year. This is not only
great public health problem, but an
e. onomic problem as well. The war
risk law provides that these men shall
be furnished with government medical
and surgical service, but the present
facilities of the government are alto
gether inadequate to meet this need.
Furthermore, all the private and pub
lie sanitoria of this country will not
accommodate this number of cases.
There are only $4,000 "beds"-to use
the medical expression-for tubercu-
lar persons. including men, women and
n in cd Tot ~
| these are always fully occupied.
The present bill in congress Is the
first step in an extensive program for
mulated by the war risk insurance bu-
| reau and the public health service to
meet this emergency. 1t authorizes
| the secretary of the treasury, (the pub
lie health service being under the
treasury Department. to spend ten and
a half million dollars in providing
immediate hospital and sanhtorium ia
cilities for the care and treatment of
discharged sick and disabled soldiers
and sailors. The money can be ex-
pended either in purchasing or leasing
existing facilities, or in building new
ones. According To the public health
service, there is imperative need for
hospital for American sailors at
Norfolk. On the other hand, the en-
largement of government hospital ia
cilities already in existence at such
points as Boston, Chicago. Cleveland.
Detroit, Evansville, Louisville, San
Francisco, Seattle and Wilmington,
| North Carolina, would take care of
many cases.
But the most that this ten and a
| half million dollars will furnish is ac-
commodations for 5000 patients. The
government estimates that Il must
spend at least $G6, 100000 on its tuber-
cular soldiers and sailors before it
T,, inc q Qs.lS
lance is being offered by civilians. The
National Association for the Preven-
| ton of tuberculosis is now holding
| meetings all over the country to dis
cuss means of procuring adequate
| facilities to care for tubercular VIC
| tins, discharged from the army and
navy. Private philanthropy may also
help to solve the problem. Mr. Harry
| Payne Whitney of New York has
promised to build hospital of 500
beds in the Adirondacks for tubercular
patients, and maintain~it for a period
| of ten years.
| The tremendous number Of cases of
tuberculosis that have developed in
the army is not, according to medical
| opinion, a Disagreement OF military
life. For a healthy man the outdoor
exercise and simple food of the can
Torment are a fortunate change from
his former hectic existence. He gains
in strength and weight.
But the constant drilling and4narcil-
| ing are too strenuous for a sick man.
| He Immediately collapses. So the
| military men argue that the ma jority
| Of men developing tuberculosis in the
army had the disease when they came
into camp. In fact, it has been proven
| that the majority are arrested cases
that have broken down under the
rigors of military life and which
should have been detected by the ex-
| amining physicians of their local
draft boards.
This failure of the local draft board
physician to detect q tubercular VIC
tim is not surprising, Col. c. E. Banks
| of the war risk bureau points out
when you consider that he is allowed
but fifteen minutes in which to make
his examination on thirty items. In
this brief period it is physically impos-
sfble for him to make as thoro an ex-
animation as that made of the man
| when he arrives in camp. Sometimes
the man knows that he is an arrested
case of tuberculosis but says nothing
because he is anxious to go to war
In other cases the man himself is to.
tally unaware of the fact that he has
the disease.
This explanation, of course. coin.
cides with the present theory held BY
the medical profession that everybody
has tuberculosis some time in his life
Most often, it occurs in childhood
when, if the child does not succumt
to the disease, he develops the neces.
sary protection against the germ. The
membranes of the nose erect theil
barriers against the entrance OF the
tuberculsr bacilli, a special deadly Sc.
erection is manufactured for killing the
germs in his stomach. and his blood
develops a tuberculosis-resista quail
fly. If at any time during his life
however, a person becomes over
worked and run down. his resistance
is lowered, and the tuberculosis bacill
may make a successful offensive.
Unless the disease has proceeded
too far. it is comparatively easy t,
cure. It is believed, therefore, tina
with the necessary medical attention
American soldiers and sailors can b.
cured and sent back into civil lif
healthy and self-supporting Severa