Evening star., 1934-04-07
STAFF INADEQUATE
FOR TREATMENT.
|OF TUBERCULOSIS
Dispensary Where Sufferers
Apply Also Lacks Suffi-
Cient Funds.
PETITIONS FOR HELP
HAVE BEEN REJECTED
X.Ray Equipment Was Installed
in 1915-Five Nurses Make
4,070 Visits.

buff brick house stands as the outpost
against tuberculosis in the District
and offers an interesting study to the
committee of experts named yester-
day by the District Commissioners to
investigate the white plague situation
here.
The building, 3O1 c street, is the
tuberculosis Dspensary maintained
by the District Health Department.
1t is monument to a forgotten era
in the history Of the National Capital,
once handsome residence, now the
haven to which the sufferers apply
| for aid.
Staff Inadequate.
With scant funds, an inadequate
staff and antiquated equipment, the
Health Department attempts within
its walls to diagnose and treat clin-
ically hundreds of cases of tuber-
culosis annually. More advanced
cases are sent to the tuberculosis
Hospital at Fourteenth and Upshur
streets, If beds are available in that
overcrowded building. But many of
the unfortunate who are in the first
stages must rely on the treatment
and aid they can obtain at the dis
penSary.
For years Dr. William c. Fowler,
District health officer, has pleaded for
sufficient funds to conduct the clinic
properly. His pleas have gone un-
needed; in fact, they have seldom
even reached Congress. Budget con-
ferences. anxious to pare proposes
appropriations to the bone, have
killed them in the preliminary stages.
Requests Neglected.
Five years ago DR.. Fowler asked
for an extra physician and additional
nurses. He did not get them. Last
year he cut his request to one addi-
tlonal nurse to take care of the over
Whelming volume of work among the
colored people. Again he was turned
down. Neither time did his request
get before Congress.
Because of his appointment yester-
day by the Commissioners to head the
| committee which will investigate the
tuberculosis situation here, DR.. Fowler
| was reluctant today to discuss the
clinic. He explained that pending the
result of the committees inquiry he
felt it would be in bad taste to
speak.
However, as the health officer of
the District, will say that our equip
| ment Is antiquated, that it should
have been replaced years ago, and
that thu dispensary is undermined,
DR.. Fowler said.
L have said that before I was
named to the committee and 1 say it
again"
X-ray Equipment Old.
The X-ray equipment, particularly.
should be replaced. This machine in
comparatively recent years has be-
come medicines most important ap-
paratus in the detection of tuber-
culosis. Yet the one in the dispen-
sary was bought in 1915.
This department (X-ray) is per-
haps the most glaring in its def
ciency" said the Medical Society of
the District of Columbia in its re-
cent report on tuberculosis.
Last year the single employe in this
department made 3,279 examinations
wrote his reports and as the Medical
Society remarked, when not other
wise occupied repaired and rejuve-
mated his 19-year-old apparatus
Nurses Visit 1910.
The five nurses, who do both office
and field work, made 4070 visits to
the homes of patients and suspected
contacts last year. They were COM
mended by the Medical Society.
Such is the Government agency
trying to stem the tide of the white
plagued" observed the Medical Society.
The tuberculosis Investigating
Committee will meet next Wednesday.
The Commissioners have asked the
six members to make a thorough
study Of conditions and to submit
recommendations for improvement in
methods of combating the disease
as soon as possible.
The survey is direct outgrowth of
the Medical Society's report.
In addition to DR.. Fowler the men,
bers are DR.. Prentiss Wilson, presi-
dent Of the Medical Society; DR..
William Charles White. president of
the tuberculosis Association of the
District; DR.. j. w. Peabody, super
intendent of the tuberculosis Hos
pital; a member of the United States
Health Service. to be named by the
surgeon general; and a member of
the Board of Public Welfare, to be
named by the board.
Commissioner Allen, who has su-
pervision over the work of the Health
Department, said he wants first of
all to have erected new tuberculosis
sanitarium for adults, if the project
can be financed. The Commissioners
are to confer soon with Public Works
Administrator Ickes on this matter.
If this cannot be accomplished,
Allen said, then he hopes the COM
mittee will suggest the next best"
things for improvement of the local
situation. Provision of additional
nurses and physicians may be one
step, he said. He said he hoped
prompt attack could be made on the
problem.
The new Children's Sanatorium,
located on the Defense Highway, IA
miles from Washington, will be dis
cussed in a later article.
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