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59
I have examined the home visit returns for this year and have
abstracted the following information:—
There are 155 tuberculosis patients sharing bedrooms with
other persons, and 114 of these patients sleep in a bed with another
person. In 56 instances arrangements could be made, and have
been suggested to the patients, whereby by some arrangement of the
home they could have a separate bedroom, or at least a separate
bed. In some cases this rearrangement has been made, in other
cases it has been difficult to convince the patient that it is necessary
to do so, and in four cases the patients have definitely refused to
make any such arrangement. From these facts it will be seen that
there are some 100 patients who are living in conditions where they
cannot have a separate sleeping room.
There are a number of examples in Mitcham where several
members of a family have become infected with tuberculosis, and I
believe that in some instances this has been due to the fact that
the tuberculosis patient has infected the healthy person sharing his
bedroom or bed. During the day time, if proper precautions are
taken, there is little fear of infection, but the chances of infection
are greatly increased if a healthy person sleeps in the same bed
with an infected person.
Where a husband or wife is the infected person it is very
difficult in some cases to persuade them to sleep apart, and as
mentioned before, four persons have definitely refused to do so.
Whilst I agree with the theory that it would be a good plan to
have special houses or flats for this type of person, I am bound to
admit that any suggestion of segregation in any form will have an
adverse effect. Even if such a scheme were made, I believe that in
a number of cases patients would still share a bedroom.
Under the Public Health (Tuberculosis) Regulation, 1930, all
notifications of persons suffering from tuberculosis must be confidential;
therefore no scheme should be put into operation which
immediately marks out a person or family as suffering from
tuberculosis.
In my opinion, I think it would be a better plan to ask the
Housing Committee to give special consideration to applications
from families in which there is a tuberculous patient, and also to