March 30, 1917, Friday
The Bay City Times Tribune, Bay City, Michigan
BAY CITY URGED TO WAKE UP AND DO SOMETHING
Dr. Rich, of Detroit, Declares That Tuberculosis Can Be Wiped Out.
SAYS MEANS ARE KNOWN
Advocates Free Clinic Supported By the Municipal Government.
“We know how to treat tuberculosis. The disease can be practically wiped out in this state in ten years if the people would properly take hold of the matter.”
“It is, and should be, the duty of the city to provide the means and facilities for coping with the disease. There should be a free clinic maintained by the city government, where those who cannot afford to pay physicians may go and have their cases properly diagnosed.”
“The state cannot be expected to come here and eradicate the disease. It is up to Bay City to act, and it should act promptly. There should be a full paid tuberculosis physician or health officer to properly handle the proposition. It would pay the city in dollars and cents and improve the healthfulness of the community. It would save untold suffering, too. The sick could be made well through isolation, and those in danger of the insidious disease could be afforded protection by proper instruction.”
Dr. H. M. Rich, an authority on tuberculosis and the treatment of the dreaded disease, made the foregoing statements at the Civic league Thursday, where he and other physicians were conducting a tuberculosis clinic. The doctor was here a year ago when a clinic under the auspices of the state board of health was conducted at the city hall. He devotes probably as much or more time to fighting the malady than any other physician in Michigan. His whole soul is in the work for the sake of humanity and his only regret is that the people do not co-operate in the movement with greater energy and financial assistance. He believes that it is up to each individual community to take the initiative in behalf of those afflicted, which, he declares, would be a protection to others with unimpaired health.
Dr. Rich hesitates to be interviewed. The ethics of his profession are dear to him he dislikes to see his name in print. He so informed a newspaper man Thursday afternoon. However, he is so enthusiastic over the work of fighting tuberculosis that he cannot refrain from taking on the subject. He gives his services gratis in Detroit and other places and regrets that he cannot devote more of his time to the cause until the object of his ambition is attained.
“Your city maintains a fire department to put out fires in case they occur,” said the doctor. “That is the proper thing to do int he interest of the entire community. This being true, then why would it not be the duty of the city to protect your citizens from so insidious a disease as tuberculosis? One afflicted family will endanger the lives of many others, and that family should be given the attention that the case deserves. There should be the same provision made for fighting this malady that is made for extinguishing fires, and I consider it a purely economic question. In cases where mothers are in the advanced stages of the disease there should be a place provided for them. Infants in tubercular homes, without exception, contract the disease, and children under 10 are almost sure to meet the same fate. These are facts which cannot be refuted, and on the other hand they can be verified by actual statistics. So I say, it is up to Bay City, as well as every other community in the state to get busy and do what they can to eradicate the disease. There are more deaths from it than all other causes combined, and when the assurances are so positive it would seem strange that more activity is not shown by the people along this protective line. There should be open air schools established for the children victims. A number have been opened in a few other cities and they are serving a splendid purpose. There should be regularly employed visiting nurses and the city should make provisions to pay them for their services, as well as other expenses that would necessarily attend the conduct of daily clinics. People who cannot afford to go to a doctor ought to have an opportunity to have their troubles diagnosed if for nothing more than to protect the rest of the community.”
The Civic league clinic has proven a success although the number of patients has not been as large as expected, due probably to indifference on the part of the victims, through ignorance of their real condition, and a seeming lack of co-operation on the part of the local physicians, it being the opinion that more suspicious cases might have materialized had the victims been properly advised.
There have been a number of pathetic cases during the past two days. In one instance a father, mother and two children were examined. It was found that the father had an arrested case of the disease while the mother was in a positive state of infection. The daughter was also in an advanced stage and the son proved to be suspicious case. A brother of the man with the arrested case lost two members of his family within a year from tuberculosis and another was pronounced a positive case.
Out of 28 cases examined 17 were found to be positive cases and five suspicious, while four cases of the disease had been checked. Five negative case were found.
“Oh, I’m so glad I haven’t got that awful disease,” said a 10-year-old girl as she emerged from the office and skipped light-heartedly up Fifth avenue with a young woman, presumably her sister. “I am so very sorry for those other people,” the child concluded, as she got beyond the hearing of the reporter.
Bay City, Michigan: The Way It Was 