The Daily Alaska empire., 1943-04-27
WORK OF U. }. GOVT. l HOSPITAL POINTS UP.
 ADVANCES IN FIELD
New Director, br. Eber- hardt, Extends Ihsfdpy
 10 0ut-Paiient Clinic

l JuIledu 1ON6TllIlltlll I1Ooplpdi Il, carrying on under the direction of Dr. Jacob P Eberhardt, medical director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a program of health check Ing, health education, and out patient clinical care that is ex- tending greatly the scope of the 65-bed hospital.
 In an effort to overcome t h e handicap of limited hospital facili- ties, pr. Eberhardt shortly after his arrival in Juneau, began regu- lar Monday, Wednesday and Friday out-patient clinics which have quickly grown from scattering at tendance to from 30 to as many as 60 patients at one clinic.
 Special clinics for babies are also being held and are increasing ly well attended the Well Baby clinic, held the first Tuesday of each month; the Prenatal clinic, held every third Tuesday monthly and the sick baby clinic, scheduled ayery Wednesday.
 , As a mark of progressive health education is the fact that practi- cally 100 percent of all expectant mothers now have their deliveries in the hospital, where comfortable, pleasant and strictly hygienic quar- ters are provided them and their newly born infants, in addition to excellent medical care.
 Tuberculosis
 In the treatment of tuberculosis i-Alaska's most dread disease - where very close to 80 percent of all natives show positive in the x-ray and sputum tests, only the most pressing of cases can at pres ent be hospitalized, although in many the health of other members of the family can be to some ex- tent safeguarded.
 Government Hospital facilities are limited to 29 beds for tubercular patients and there is always a waiting list. Within this number patients run the whole gamut of tubercular outcroppings; one wo- man seen yesterday on visit through the hospital, aged about 35, is taking series of blood trans fusions to strengthen her for an operation necessary for her we'll being. Tubercular, she is likewise pregnant, but too weak to carry her child
 Throat glands where the mar auding bacilli have brought about a specific area of infection, hard ened and enlarged and some ol them running sores; tubercular spines in tots less than two years old who have been put in plaster ot paris casts and who may yet be able to run and jump despite the crippling malady; tubercular fin ger on a plump little girl of two ard half years which resembles more an infected cut; tubercula, legs and bones and-almost all of them-tubercular lungs. All these cry out for mighty and concert ed drive on the devastating killer Until the possible conversion oi military buildings into hospitals following the war, adequate hospi- talization cannot be provided for all those who need it. Said Dr. Eberhardt: If we had 500 beds here just for tubercular patients, we could keep them all filled"
 Health Education
 In the meantime health educa- tion is proceeding apace and, re- versing the former attitude, many persons now come in voluntarily and ask that tests be made and, where results are positive, ask also 1 for directions for care.
 There are always about fifteen urgent tubercular cases on the hos pital waiting list, most of these having voluntarily presented them selves for diagnosis.
 Likewise responding to health education but even more marked in it's success is the program for control of social diseases, so that today few individuals reach tn e last or Tertiary stage of syphilis, but apply and receive treatment in the initial stages. where the disease can be either arrested or permanently cured.
 Operating Room
 Although unknown to many, the Government Hospitals operating room is one of the finest equipped with a complete array of surgical instruments necessary for any or dinary surgery and with mucn specialized equipment as well. It is the only hospital in Juneau