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Show WHITE PLAGUE IN THIS STATE "Thero isn't any tuberculosis in 5 Utah," is tho Btatoment wo frequent-, Zm J? hear, although not eo often ns g formerly. "Thero nro a few con- 2J aumptlves hero but they aro all Mi health seekers from other states, ' )j Is another remark often heard. A prominent citizen recently said to tho A writer, "We used to say that no casg X of tuberculosis ever originated In (j Utah, but we have had to give up )W that Idea. We know too many cases U that did orlginato hero." A study was recently made of th death report for a period of tlmo in one of the Utah cities. Fourteen fciV T-f from tUDorcu,osla wore rPrt- "y'ea'by tho attending doctor during I that period. Four of the victims had lived their entire llve3, varying from 24 to 4G years, In Utah. One victim n had lived In Utah 12 years and tho other 6 years. Two cases were sup- posed to have been contracted In Wyoming which has a cllmato slml- tpa lar to ours. In tho other six cases ai the disease had been contracted In other states and death occurred aftor only a brief residence here. The30 S death reports clearly indlcato that tho White Plague, as tuberculosis Is often called, can orlginato hero and that our cllmato is not an lnfalllbla ycure for It. Wo have no way of knowing tho number of consumptives in Utah. Tho death reports filed with tho state board of health show that 17G persons died from consumption in tho stato last year. Many doctors fall to recognize tuborculosls or report It as some other malady to sparo tho feelings of tho family. So probably tho toll of victims is oven greater than tho records show. Wo can only guess at tho number of living victims. Tho law requires that all cases of tuborculosls bo reported re-ported to the board of health by the attending physicians. The state board of health has been endeavoring for years to persuado the doctors to observe ob-serve this law, but without success. It Is evident' from the experiences of other states as well as of Utah that I the doctors will continue to ignore this law until the people awake to Its value and compel their doctors to obey the law. We can never eradicate erad-icate tho disease until every caso Is Immediately recognized and renortod by the doctor and every necessary precaution taken to prevent the Infection In-fection of others. It Is generally estimated es-timated In the United States, the estimate es-timate being based on the result of careful Investigations, that there nro more than ton living cases of tuberculosis tuber-culosis to every death. In Utah, on account of tho many deaths among transclents, we are very conservative and estimate about five cases to every death. Wo, therefore, conclude that thero aro about one thousand persons suffering today from somo form of tuberculosis In our state. |