Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 205, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1916 — Phthisis Most Common of Diseases But Many Conquer Germ Without Knowing It [ARTICLE]

Phthisis Most Common of Diseases But Many Conquer Germ Without Knowing It

By DR. THOMAS WILLETT

It is commonly believed that tuberculosis is a disease of adults. r f'hia is a mistake. Tuberculosis is almost entirely a childhood disease. That is to say, the primary invasion takes place in childhood and the germs lie in a quiescent stage until under certain conditions of exposure, overfatigue or self-indulgence they break forth and become active. Eightyfive per cent of all persons have had the disease in their bodies by the time they are fifteen years of age. It is the commonest of all diseases, and in spite of the fact that it kills more people annually than all the other diseases combined, if pneumonia is excepted, death is not the common termination of the disease. Many people conquer the germ without ever knowing of its presence. Ninety-nine per cent of {He babies who are infected with tuberculosis in the first month of their life die. Ninety per cent of those who contract the disease in the first year die. With the increasing resistance of the body this percentage is lowered, and only 35 per cent of the babies who contract the disease in their second year die.