The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

November, 1951 The Health Bulletin 13vigor. Leprosy was eliminated fromWestern Europe during the latter halfof the Middle Ages by the simple procedureof detection and isolation.Contrary to popular opinion the eradicationof tuberculosis is not "just aroundthe corner." We are scarcely half-waythrough the job and its completion willrequire as much efifort, enthusiasm, anddevotion as that expended by our predecessorsin reducing the death ratefrom 200 per 100,000 to 23 per 100,000.KEEPING FAITHBy Roland L. Garrett, PresidentNorth Carolina Tuberculosis AssociationElizabeth City, N. C.A few years ago, tliree years to beexact, an article appeared in this Bulletinbearing the same title as the oneyou are now reading— "Keeping Faith."That article, among other things, referredto the faith of an American boyawaiting a visit from Santa Claus ascompared to that of tuberculosis associationsand committees in North Carolinaawaiting the results of the ChristmasSeal Sale. In each case there wasan awarding of the faith.Looking back to 1906 the year inwhich the North Carolina TuberculosisAssociation was organized we can pointwith a degree of pride and humility toa program of tuberculosis control participatedin, promoted and in some instancesspearheaded by the North CarolinaTxiberculosis Association. That programin which the association workedin cooperation with ofQcial and othervoluntary agencies has wrought improvementin the tuberculosis situationin the state of which each of its citizenshas a right to be justly proud. I refer tothe constantly decreasing death rate;the discovery rate of 4.5 cases per deathin North Carolina as compared with 3.6for the nation, which is indicative of amuch improved case-finding program;the earlier stages in which the diseaseis detected, signifying a more intensiveeducation program; and the niunerousattempts at rehabilitation necessary tohelp a patient readjust a community living.Tuberculosis associations do not workin competition with official agenciescharged with the responsibility of controllingtuberculosis in a given area. Insteadthey are the lengthening shadowsof a group of far-seeing men determinedto organize their efforts towardsstrengthening the official agencies intheir control of this dread disease. Unhamperedby political ties and withfunds donated specifically for the purposethey have pioneered in new fieldsand opened up new avenues necessaryfor the official agency's progress. As ateam these agencies have "marshalledthe power of science, shaped the knowledgeand understanding of men in thefight against tuberculosis," and are attemptingto design a pattern for futureprograms not of control but of eventualeradication.Dr. Wade Hampton Frost expressedthe possibility of eradication in 1935when he stated, "Eradication of tuberculosisis now an expectation sufficientlywell grounded to justify shaping ourtuberculosis control program toward thisdefinite end. We have reached the stageat which the biological balance isagainst the survival of the tuberclebacillus. If this balance can be maintainedand the source of infection furtherreduced, the control of tuberculosisis within our grasp."The tuberculosis associations, local,state and national, are dedicated tohelping "maintain this balance" and atthe same time to demonstrating neweractivities in the field of tuberculosis control.These associations look forward tothe day when tuberculosis is relegatedto such an unimportant position thatefforts to control it are no longer neces-