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Tuberculosis Source: The American Journal of Nursing, Vol. 22, No. 3 (Dec., 1921), pp. 177-178 Published by: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3406984 . Accessed: 13/09/2013 00:47
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TUBERCULOSIS
Prepa,redfor the JOURNAL by the National Tu,berculosis Assoc?vtion THERE was a time, not long distant, when the word "tuberculosis" was used but little and understood still less by the general public. The term "consumption," on the other hand, had a very definitemeaning in the people'simagination. It called up the vision of an emaciated person with a hollow cough and a carmine spot on each sunken cheek, -the person had a "catching'tdisease, and the safest way not to endangerone's life was to keep decidedlyout of his way. People who nursed consumptives,so ran the fable, were almost certain to "get it^' themselves. Thus far extendedthe knowledgeof tuberculosis, and altogether the lay public and even nurses and practicing physicians stood in mighty awe of the disease which an imaginativewriter had dramaticallytermed the Great White Plague. Years of education,experimentationand researchby specialists, however have almostbrokendownthe powerfulbarriersof ignorance and exaggerated fear. We now know that a large majority of the children under fifteen years of age are infected with the tubercle bacillus, and that the ultimate developmentinto active disease dependsto a considerable degree on food, working conditionsand habits of living. Tuberculosishas certain definite symptoms, recognizable long before emaciation,expectoration,and the hectic flush betray the advancedcase. Loss of weight, a persistent "cold,"lasting fatigue, all these should arouse suspicion in the observeracquaintedwith the disease. Tuberculosisis a preventabledisease, which means not only that every individual should keep himself physically fit, but that active tuberculosis must be discovered early so as to increase the patient's chances of recovery, and prevent the infection or reinfection of others. The fact that the amountof tuberculosisis decreasingevery year is due in no small measureto the increase in the numberof sanatoria for the care of incipient cases. A visit to such an institution may cause the skepticto pause and wonderif the examiningphysician did not, perhaps, make an error in his diagnosis; so healthy, ruddy and ha}?py do the patients appear. Yet these are the cases who, because they recognizethe importanceof early treatment, have the greatest chance of recovery. There are still many nurses who hesitate to enter the tuberculosis field because of the fear of infection With the training in sputum technic that every patient in a sanatorium receives, however, and which every attending nurse and physician thoroughlyunderstands,the chancesof infection are almost nil. For, 177
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178
as the National TuberculosisAssociation phrases it, "a careful consumptive is not dangerous." The National Association advocatesthat !student nurses be given first hand opportunityto becomeacquaintedwith the symptomsand care of tuberculosis by the establishment of tuberculosis wards in generalhospitals. To raise funds for thiisand other educationalwork, the Association and its affiliated organizations are conducting the Fourteenth Annual Sale of Christmas Seals in December.
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