Milford chronicle., 1934-12-14


When we say NEEDS" why
should il always be taken TO mean
money? The biggest needs in the
work of our Society are little con-
cerned with money. They are most
ly concerned with people and with
plans. II, we had a million dollars,
and yet had no adequate plan for
using it, the very possession of that
great sum with no clear and direct
ed aims would mean that we might
waste and squander it, and do more
harm than good Is not that one OF
the tragedies of America today
that by those who desire to remedy
present troubles, millions are being
wasted to do foolish and inadequate
things? The first need of any soei-
ETY. like ours is to know what we
should aim for.
Up to the present time, we have
helped to cut down the tuberculosis
death rate by approximately so per
cent. That is an encouraging sign.
We can be gratified that yearly Inro-
gress has been made. But we are
now facing the fact that to go on in
Delaware as we have done in the
past means probably 80 years of our
present effort. Thirty years-that Is
a whole generation of sufferers, OF
deaths, of tragic personal loss, OF
heavy losses to Delaware, since tu-
berculcsis strikes mostly at young
men and women who, if they lived
would otherwise become valuable
citizens.
In 1923, there were $50 deaths
from tuberculosis in Delaware. What
value shall we place upon one hui
man life? No two statistical compu-
tations seem to agree, but the Metro
pOlitan Life Insurance Company is
a pretty good authority. DR.. Dublin,
their expert, says that the average
investment that has been made in a
hoy or girl up to the age of 25 is
$4,000. Approximately half of all
deaths from tuberculosis occur
around the age of 25. If we had in
Delaware. 259 deaths in 1923, half
of them or 129 deaths, were young
men and women in the earning per-
iod of life and there was therefore,
a computed loss to the State OF
nearly two million dollars. And it
was not a necessary loss. We must
remember that every case of tuber-
culosis is preventable. 1t need never
have been allowed to begin. Even
after it has begun, it is in most
cases durable. 1t need not have been
allowed to go on.
BY 1888, ten years later, our
deaths in Delaware from tubercu-
lOsis had fallen to 17S. We assume
that 50 per cent of these, as usual,
were young men and women. Using
DR.. Dublin's figures. these SO deaths
meant a loss of $685. 900. Even at
this lower death-rate, the ten years
from 1928 to 1888 would have shown
a loss to our State of over S13,O0O,-
900 I'm potential value.
tuberculosis kills more people in
the prime of life-frOm 25 to 10
than any other disease. Ii is a pre-
ventable and durable disease. DR..
Frick once declared after years of
experience. that tuberculosis is the
hardest disease to catch and the cas-
lest to cure that he had ever met. It
quered The key to conquest is
found to lie in two things-early
finding of tuberculosis and sanator-
um segregation and treatment.
Any adequate plan for Delaware,
therefore, must stress these two
points. National records show tha:
when a case is found in the first
stage, the sanatOrium treatment !
,nly lasts about five and half I
months. The later the case is found
he longer the period required for
,ure, and in the later stages, cures s
ire not frequent. In other words,
,ach early case found and treated /
.uts down costs and increases the I
nance of early cure. f
Any plan which finds and treats Y
arly cases is thus an economical G
Ian. But where do early cases come y
rom? Our State Board of Health is a
hiding every day that advanced il
ases, ont segregated in sanatOria as L
hey should he, produce new cases b
n the family and neighbOrhoOd. Fl
therefore, Brandywine and Edge a
'ood SanatOriums should be ade- a
uately equipped to take all such c
ases. This is not being done at the S
resent time, but public opinion in a
delaware should demand that it is ei
one. II
We have been studying out a COM II
Iete plan which it is possible might T