Imperial Valley press., 1936-12-02
A MATTER OF
DOLLARS AND CENTS

Only five other diseases cause more
deaths than does tuberculosis in Cali
fornia. The great majority of deaths
from these diseases occur late in life,
while nearly all deaths that occur from
tuberculosis occur before the age of 90,
particularly, between the ages of 15 and
45. No other disease causes as much i'll
ness and suffering. as many disrupted
homes, as does tuberculosis, which is
afflicting more than 10000 persons in
California at the present time.
But let us forget for the moment-if
we can-the suffering and death which
tuberculosis causes. and think of it only
in terms of the dollars and cents it costs
us.
A low estimate of the cost of tuber-
culosis in California each year, based on
the cost of loss of life, loss in wages,
and expense of caring for tuberculosis
patients, is more than S52,000,000. Who
pays this loss? Individuals and their
families, business and communities.
How much does the community pay?
This can only be estimated but it is
known that sc per cent of all patients
admitted to tuberculosis institutions in
California are treated free of charge
and per cent pay only part of the
cost of their care. Because the long
period of illness caused by tuberculosis
is expensive in treatment and because
income is lost during that time, few in
dividuals are financially able to pay
for the cost of treatment
Surveys have shown that the average
cost of treating a patient, with what
physicians call minimal tuberculosis is
approximately $4,000 while the treat
ment of patient with moderately ad-
vanced or advanced tuberculosis costs
$500. Yet, less than II per cent of the
patients with pulmonary tuberculosis
admitted to sanatoria and tuberculosis
departments in California are in the
minimal stage of the disease, and more
than so per cent are admitted in the far
advanced stage of the disease, when
treatment is most costly and less sue
ceSSful.
We have, in California, tuberculosis
institutions valued at more than S18,500
600, and their annual maintenance ex-
penditure is approximately S6,000,000.
Yet, 18 per cent of the patients who
enter these institutions leave in an un-
improved condition, and 25 per cent of
the patients die in the institution be-
cause they came for treatment too late.
Why is this so? Because few cases of
tuberculosis are found in the early or
minimal stages. Medicinal authorities
tell us that with the use of the tuber-
culn test to discover infection and the
X-ray to discover disease, cases of tuber-
culosis can be discovered in their earli-
est stages, often before any special hos
pial treatment is necessary for their
cure. The ordinary physical examina-
tion will not find these very early cases.
and if we wait until physical symptoms
of the disease appear. tuberculosis will
have progressed to its moderately ad-
vanced stage.
Then why don't we use the tuberculin
test and X-ray to discover cases early,
you ask From careful study, it has
been shown that an adequate expendi-
ture to carry on a general public health
program would be approximately $3.50
to $500 per person per year in any Am
erican community For the population
of California of 6,275,000, this annual
expenditure wou d be approximately
S17,250,0O0 Contrast this with the an
nual loss of more than $50,000,000 from
tuberculosis alone.
We can purchase protection from tu-
berculosis but we have not done so. For
more than half the population of Cali
fornia there is either no protection, or
primitive, or inadequate protection from
this disease. For the remainder of the
population, there is in operation only
fair preventive machinery to protect
them from tuberculosis, except in few
communities.