WHAT EVERY PERSON SHOULD KNOW ABOUT TUBERCULOSIS, WHETHER HE HAS THE DISEASE OR NOT.
Tuberculosis is caused by a germ.
Tuberculosis is communicable and preventable.
Consumption of the lungs is the most common form of tuberculosis.
Consumption of the bowels is the next most common form.
The germ causing tuberculosis leaves the body of the person who has the disease by means of the discharges; by the sputum coughed up from the lungs, by nasal discharge, by bowel excrement, by urine, by abscesses.
If the sputum of the consumptive is allowed to dry, its infected dust floats in the air, and is breathed into the lungs.
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Any person breathing such air is in danger of contracting tuberculosis. It is best not to stand near a person suffering with tuberculosis who is coughing, because in this act finely divided droplets of saliva are thrown from the mouth, and may be carried for a distance of three feet. These may contain large numbers of the bacilli. They are also sometimes thrown out in forcible speaking. The ordinary breath of a consumptive does not contain them.
If the bowels or other discharges from the tuberculous person are not disinfected, but are thrown into a sewer, privy, river or buried they are a source of danger, and may pollute a source of drinking water.
Impure milk, that is, milk from a tuberculous cow or milk exposed to infected dust is a common source of tuberculosis. Milk from suspected sources should be boiled. The all-important thing to do to prevent tuberculosis from spreading from one person to another, and from one part of the body to another, is immediately to destroy all discharges from the body of a person who has tuberculosis.
Destroy by fire or by disinfectant all sputum, all nasal discharges, all bowel excrement, all urine as soon as discharged. For such a purpose use a five per cent solution of carbolic acid (six and three-fourths ounces of carbolic acid to one gallon of water).
No person, well or sick, should spit in public places or where the sputum cannot be collected and destroyed.
Flies carry sputum and its infection to food, to your hands, your face, clothes, the baby's bottle, from which the germs are taken into the mouth, and thus gain access to the stomach or lungs.
Spitting on the sidewalk, on the floor, on the wall, on the grass, in the gutter, or even into a cuspidor containing no disinfectant is a very dangerous practice for a consumptive to indulge.
The person infected with tuberculosis should protect himself, his family, his associates and the public by not spitting in public places, and by promptly destroying all discharges.
The well person should defend himself by insisting that the tuberculous person shall destroy all discharges.
Well persons should set the example of restraint and themselves refrain from spitting promiscuously. A person may appear quite healthy and yet be developing tuberculosis without knowing it.
Such a person, if he spits where he pleases, may be depositing infected sputum where it can endanger the health and lives of other persons.
Do not sleep with a person who has tuberculosis, nor in the room occupied by a tuberculous person, until that room has been thoroughly disinfected.
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Any person is liable to contract tuberculosis, whether he is well or not. Sickly persons, or those having bad colds, influenza bronchitis or pneumonia or any general weakness are much more liable to contract tuberculosis than a perfectly well or robust person. If you have a cough that hangs on consult at once a reliable physician who has ability to diagnose tuberculosis.
Prevention is possible; it is cheaper and easier than cure.
Any person having tuberculosis can recover from the disease if he takes the proper course in time.
Advanced cases of tuberculosis, that is, those cases where the disease is well developed, are the most dangerous to the public and the most difficult to cure.
Every advanced case of tuberculosis should be in a sanatorium.
Sanatoria offers the best chance, usually the only chance, of cure to an advanced case.
They also protect well citizens from danger of infection from advanced stages of tuberculosis. There are fewer deaths from tuberculosis in those localities where sanatoria are established for the care of tuberculous persons.
One person out of every seven who die, dies from tuberculosis.
One child out of every ten dies from tuberculosis.
Homes and school-houses greatly need more fresh air supplied to their occupants.
Day camps are city parks, vacant lots or abandoned farms where the tuberculous persons of a community may go and spend the entire day in rest, receiving instructions in proper hygiene and skillful treatment. Such camps are supplied with tents, hammocks, reclining chairs, one or more nurses, milk, eggs and other nourishment.
Dispensaries are centers of sanitary and medical instruction for local tuberculous persons.
Every locality should establish and maintain a dispensary for the benefit of tuberculous persons; for their instruction how to prevent the disease from spreading, and how to conduct themselves to insure relief and cure.
Householders are required by law to report a case within their households to the local health officers. The local health officer has certain duties to perform under the law, and co-operation with him by the householder and tuberculous person, works for the suppression of this disease.
Do not consider a tuberculous person an outcast, or one fit for the pesthouse. Your crusade is against tuberculosis, not against the person suffering from the disease.
Give the freedom of a well person to the tuberculous who is instructed and conscientious in the observance of necessary precautions. Be very much afraid of the tuberculous person who is ignorant or careless in the observance of necessary precautions.