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107
SECTION VI.
PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF TUBERCULOSIS.
The Tuberculosis Clinic is situated at 13, Katharine Street.
The premises are not ideal, being cramped and noisy, though
measures have been taken to reduce noise getting into the consulting
room. The erection of three dressing cubicles, whilst encroachon
the limited waiting-room accommodation, has added to the
comfort of the patients. Sessions are held daily in the mornings
and afternoons except on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons.
An evening session is held on Tuesdays. The Dispensary is a
sorting house for cases. To it come patients sent by doctors, cases
under observation and cases under treatment at home. From it
patients are drafted to various Sanatoria and Hospitals or back to
their private practitioner. It is essentially a consultative and not
a treatment centre.
Sir Robert Philip, the originator of modern anti-tuberculosis
schemes recently made some interesting comments on the outlook
on tuberculosis.
He stated that "the tuberculosis index of a given area is
dependent on, and governable by, the degree of intelligent action
on the part of health authorities and of co-operation on the part
of the inhabitants.
The chief weakness of the present day attitude is the disproportionate
concentration of attention on pronounced lesions, more
especially pulmonary tuberculosis which is a late manifestation of
an infection contracted much earlier. Attention must be shifted
more and more towards the earliest, indications of tuberculosis
infection—not to the neglect of late manifestations but to their
better interpretation and progressive elimination.
If our efforts towards the eradication of tuberculosis from a
community are to be effective, it is necessary that we should hunt
for the earliest traces of tuberculous infection He advocates the
general use of tuberculin as a diagnostic agent in childhood and
states that the tuberculin test which is painless and harmless
should become routine practice from early infancy onwards. It is
the lack of such scientific anticipation which has created and meantime
maintains, the need for sanatorium and hospitals all over the
country."
1.—It is recognised that infection during the first four years of
life is dangerous, as during this period practically 100% of those
infected are found to be suffering from tuberculosis.