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50
The statistical returns for the year in regard to tuberculosis
in the Borough, and in the country generally, and in all
civilised countries, are satisfactory and encouraging. The
causes responsible for the great reduction in the death-rate for
tuberculosis in recent years were concisely summarised by Sir
George Newman in his classical address to the International
Conference on Tuberculosis in London in July, 1921, as being
due to:—
(1) The considerable progress in sanitary reform, and
great improvement in social well-being and
nutrition.
(2) The steady increase in our knowledge of the
aetiology, pathology and modes of transmission
of the disease, as well as of its
earlier clinical manifestations
(3) The advance in the application of that knowledge
to the prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment
of the disease.
(4) The apparently increasing degree of immunity,
due in part to the increased resistance of the
population, and in part to those processes of
natural protection of which we know so little.
It is not possible, he states, to differentiate the relative
effect of these four factors, but together they point the way to
future conquests.
While the results obtained in the fight against tuberculosis
are remarkable and encouraging, there still remains much to be
done before it can be said that we have gained complete control
of the White Scourge. There is still a large amount of suffering,
incapacity and destitution directly due to this disease. It
is largely a social and economic problem, and it therefore is
essential that if the fight against the disease is to be successfully
maintained ample funds shall be available from the
State to assist Public Health Authorities to carry on the
campaign, especially in regard to sanatorium and other
appropriate forms of institutional treatment, housing, and the
improvement of environmental conditions generally, and the
protection of the milk supply.