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Eradication Of TuberculosisGreat forward strides have been made in the fight to stem the toll of human life taken by tuberculosis in the prairie provinces in the past few years but there are evidences that complete victory has not yet been won. There is more work yet to be done before this enemy of mankind can besaid to have been totally routed.As most residents of that province are aware, tuberculosis in Saskatchewan was some years ago brought virtually within the category of State Medicine when the sanatoria were placed under the administration of the Saskatchewan Anti-Tuberculosis League, with authority given the League to impose an annual tax levy on all municipalities, rural and urban, which, supported by government grants, furnishes the finances for treatment of all cases of the disease found within the province. In addition, it should be added, the funds for supplementary preventive work are secured from voluntary contributions realized by the sale of Christmas seals.While not quite patterned on the Saskatchewan system, the fight against the disease in Manitoba is waged along somewhat similar lines and at the time of writing the Alberta Legislature has a bill before it which will virtually place the war against T. B. in that province within the State Medicine plane, if adopted.As a result of the work done in Saskatchewan during th* past decade, that province can boast, and with justification, that it is in the van of the fight and has to-day the lowest death rate from tuberculosis of any province in the Dominion, 30 per 1,000 deaths for last year.Facts and figures show that, partly as a result of the preventive work, the incidence of the disease in Saskatchewan has passed the peak, that the former upward curve of the number of cases treated annually is now trending in a downward direction and that, as a further result, space in hospitals which have had to care for an overflow for which provision could not be made in the sanatoria, is no longer required for T.B. cases. An additional result is that patients in the sanatoria can be held there for treatment longer than was formerly possible, thus improving their chances of complete recovery.While this is all to the good, there yet remain two real hazards to be definitely eradicated. These are the menace afforded by the Indian and the cow.In the early days when the Indians roamed the prairies and lived in the open tuberculosis was practically unknown among them. It was not until they were taught to adopt the habits of the whites and confine themselves in permanent homes that they became subject to tuberculosis. Since that time the disease has become rampant among the aborigines and is taking heavy toll. In other words, the whites presented the Indians with tuberculosis and to-day the Indians are returning the compliment by infecting the whites with whom they come in frequent contact.Figures were recently quoted showing that the incidence of tuberculosis among the Indian population of the prairie provinces is ten times as great as among the white inhabitants and it appears that very little at piesent is being done to cope with the menace.The Indians are the wards of the Federal government and this is a situation which should receive the immediate attention of the authorities at Ottawa, if the efforts of the provincial governments in reducing the disease among the other residents of the provinces are not to be at least partially negatived.The other danger spot in the situation is the prevalence of bovine tuberculosis among cattle. While much has been done to reduce this disease among the cattle of the prairie provinces and to minimize the risk of infection from cattle to human beings via the milk route, there is still danger of infection from this source and will continue to be until it has been entirely stamped out of the herds.Eradication will not be complete until such time as compulsory inspection of cattle for bovine tuberculosis and slaughter- of all re-actors in the entire zone of the three provinces is in effect, but this consumption cannot be achieved until there is a sufficiently strong public demand for it
Newspaper Details
Peace River Northern Gazette
Peace River, Alberta, CA
Fri, Apr 17, 1936
Page 2
Full Page
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CA 05 Sep 2019
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