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Tuberculosis.
11
The organism causing Cerebro-Spinal Fever can be
detected either by swabbing the throat or by withdrawing fluid
from the spinal cord.
Acute Poliomyelitis (Infantile Paralysis).
Three cases of this disease were notified, with no fatalities.
The germ of this disease probably gains admission to the
nervous system by means of the upper air passages.
Pulmonary Tuberculosis.
55 cases of this disease were notified compared with 60 in
1915; 66 in 1914; and 74 in 1913, thus showing a steady
improvement.
The Tuberculosis Dispensary and Wards in the Isolation
Hospital Grounds provides treatment for these cases.
During 1916, 120 new cases attended the Dispensary for
diagnosis or treatment, many of whom were found not to be
tubercular. In addition to these, 47 were carried over from 1915
for further treatment. In the hospital 30 of the more advanced
local cases were treated.
From my experience of this disease the following deductions
are summarised:—
That the high ideals and principles governing the efficient
treatment of tuberculosis are at present subservient to the
commercial and economic side of the question. Theoretically, no
expense should be spared in the treatment of this disease;
practically, we are hemmed in on all sides by the limitations of our
powers of expenditure.
That " after-care " and " colonization " schemes could, when
once established, be made partially, if not wholly, self-supporting.
That the return of the average patient to his home after a
limited course of treatment seems very often indeed the undoing of
the good he has derived from institutional treatment.
That I have no faith in domiciliary treatment, and that the
man who can run a working man's home on Sanatorium lines is a
genius, and that it cannot be done, or anything approaching it, so
long as human nature is what it is.