J. Arthur Myers

Tuberculosis among Students and Graduates of Medicine.

Excerpt The problem of tuberculosis among students and graduates of medicine has been present since the earliest days of medical practice. Valsalva, the anatomist (1666-1723), avoided postmortem ex...

TUBERCULOSIS IN MEDICAL AND NURSING HOSPITAL PERSONNEL

Excerpt In a previous paper1reports were presented on three private hospital schools of nursing in which the students were observed with reference to tuberculosis. The hospital of School I operated...

TUBERCULOSIS AMONG STUDENTS AND GRADUATES IN NURSING

Excerpt During the past decade there has been a widespread interest revived in the subject of tuberculosis among nurses, with particular emphasis on the transmission of the disease from patients to...

Ten Years at the Lymanhurst School for Tuberculous Children

Excerpt Numerous cross section studies of tuberculosis have been made. In this paper is reported the first ten years of a longitudinal study undertaken at the Lymanhurst School for Tuberculous Chil...

DISEASES OF THE CHEST

The time has arrived when every physician, whether in general practice or a specialty, should actively engage in the tuberculosis eradication movement. In the history of man, the present moment offers the greatest hope for the ultimate eradication of this disease. It is no longer a problem of inability to diagnose early, to treat successfully in most instances, or to prevent its spread. These are reasonably well in hand. The current problem is the prevalence of tuberculosis. Even in so-called low incidence areas, more people have tuberculosis in some stage of its evolution than any other major disease. The most serious disease scourge of mankind since the dawn of history, tuberculosis, wreaked destruction among animals and people until the present century. No effective weapon against it had been found. It long ran neck and neck with malaria as an incapacitator and killer. With the use of effective malaria control measures, tuberculosis is in bold relief as the cause of incapacity and death among the 2,400,000,000 people of the world. However, in a few places phenomenal accomplishments have been made in the last decades.

EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS

In the long known nations, such as China, Egypt and Greece, consumption was described soon after man began to make permanent records. Where the disease originated we do not know, but its contagiousness was early suspected. As transportation developed, first through the use of beasts of burden and marching armies, then by sailboats, steamships, railroads, automobiles and finally airplanes, the disease was carried by persons in whom it was unsuspected and by persons who sought recovery of health from an ocean voyage or a change of climate. For a long time there remained parts of the world where tuberculosis did not exist in man or animals. As it was carried to these places it spread among the natives, as it must have originally done in the long civilized countries. In some places it appeared in epidemic form, as manifested by illness of its victims. In all places it was in