The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1921-05-03
PROGRESS IN TUBERCULOSIS
FIGHT.


Co. has produced gratifying and i'm
pressive evidence that a winning fight
is being waged in this country against
the plague of tuberculosis-a plague
that has scourged the world as has
no other disease, so vindictive and so
all-prevailing that, until few years
ago physicians and health authorities
had almost despaired of ever curbing
its ravages. That the death rate from
tuberculosis is steadily decling is prov
ed by the health statistics of wage
earners insured with the company, one
of the big insurance concerns of the
country that is conducting its affairs
on the practical theory that the fewer
de3ths there are the more profitable
it is for the company.
Moreover, it is shown by the sta
tistic that the reductions in the death
rate are greatest at the agedivlsions
Of life where the tuberculosis death
rate has heretofore been highest,
where it causes the heaviest social
damage in creating broken homes and
dependent families. and where it re-
moves wage-earners from the field of
industry at a time when productive eff
fort counts most.
These statistics prove that the pull
mCnary tuberculosis death rate for in
81 atl white males between % ard 40
years Of age in the two years Of 1919
AID 1920 combined, was One-h9lf Of
that fer the combined years OF 1911
and 1912 Such progress in eight
years is nothing short of remarkable.
Before that, in thees age-divisions. tn
hcrcul0sis took a toll Of ffrGm to 6
deaths per 1000 persons every year;
in 1919 md 1920 there were only from
> TO deaths per 1000 persons in this
same 3ge-division
Even mcre encouraging are the com
pany's statistics for persons between
10 and 60 years of age. In '.his age
division reductions in the pulmonary
tuberculosis death rate Of white males
varied from A per cent at The period
of 40 &c. A years. to 2T5 per cent at
tbs Go to 81 years. Beyond The age Of
So the decline in the rate was not less
than IL per cent. At the age group
OF from 20 to "a years. when the
stresses of industrial life first begin tc
slew their effects upon the tubercu
Icsis death rate, there was a decline
# As per cent in the death rate
Among the adolescents of the ge>
from Is to IL years, the reduction was
~ per cent. Male children under ten
years Of age also showed a substantial
reduction.
The same story of gradual control
Of the white plague is old in the re
duced death rate for white females
Likewise for cGI0red males AMI f.
males, Fer these groups, also. tie
greatest declines in the tuberclIosie
death rate occurred in the main work
ir% period Of life. The age period
from 50 to "a years showed a reGuc
ton of Il per cont among the white
females. The only increase was Hcted
in the pulmonary tuberculosis de3tp
rate of white females between Ike
1yes Of l. to - years. This was al
Increase of 5 per cent.
The death rates among the negro
children has also steadily declined.
There was greater decrease among
negro children under fifteen years OF
age than amcng white children, -
though even in the most re ,en: wears
TIE death rates for colored children
have been from six to ten times as
high as among white boys and girls
Hcyonl the age Of Fifty, cr!orcd nj les
is W greater decline in the death
. than do insured white males.
vi Ct these statistics 2re very en-
cnnrdsing that they deserve he care
,uj considers tirn of the public and the
ha1ry support of everyone for work
q 1T is gaining such ground in 4 field
mere the lives and happiness o. all
II us are so vitality concerned.