When the consumptive coughs, he sends fine droplets of moisture into the air. These droplets contain the germs that cause tuberculosis. The moisture evaporates and the germs are left sticking to the floors, the walls, the curtains, and the furniture of the room. When the room is swept or dusted, the germs are stirred up with the dust and people inhale them. The germ that causes consumption will live for a long time in a house; you cannot see it, but it is there. Wherever a consumptive has lived, he has left the germs of this disease behind him.
How to disinfect houses
If a house in which a consumptive has lived is thoroughly disinfected, all the germs he left there will be killed. Scattering disinfectants about a room does no good. The only proper way to disinfect is to close the house, for if the disinfectant is strong enough to kill the disease germs, no human being can stay in the house while it is being used. Disinfecting should be done by the health officer, because he knows how much disinfectant is needed to kill every germ in the house and how it should be used.
Fraudulent disinfectants
Sometimes you will see an advertisement saying that certain disinfectants will kill the germs of disease but will not affect the people. Always remember that any disinfectant that is strong enough to kill the disease germs will also kill human beings, and do not be fooled by such advertisements.
Never move into a house that has been previously occupied, until the house has been disinfected. Do not take it for granted that the people who lived there before had no communicable disease. Do not take the word of the agent or of any one else that there has never been sickness in the house. People sometimes have tuberculosis without knowing it; people sometimes have tuberculosis or other communicable diseases without telling of it.
It does not cost much to disinfect a house, and if the disinfection is properly done the disease germs will be killed. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Try to convince your father that by having the new home disinfected he may save not only doctor's fees, but perhaps the lives of himself and his family.
There are a great many things that boys and girls can do to help fight this disease. This "scourge" can be wiped out; but if the boys and girls do not help in this great work, it will never be done.
Questions. 1. Why do people call consumption the Great White Plague? 2. What is the annual death rate from consumption in the United States? 3. Compare the fatality from consumption with the number of soldiers killed during the Civil War. 4. What amount of illness in the United States is due to consumption? 5. Describe at least four forms of tuberculosis. 6. What determines the part of the body in which the germ of tuberculosis grows?
Remember. 1. Tuberculosis and consumption are the same disease. 2. This disease kills more people than war, although it might be prevented. 3. Tuberculosis is not confined to the lungs but may attack the tissues of any part of the body. 4. Consumption is not inherited; it is a house disease rather than a family disease. 5. A house should be disinfected by the health officer before it is occupied by a new tenant.