War & T. B.

The tuberculosis death rate, which has declined steadily since World War I, rose in 19 U.S. cities in 1940. So reported Statistician Godias J. Drolet, assistant director of the New York Tuberculosis & Health Association, who last week published t.b. reports from 46 large cities all over the U.S.

In these cities, Mr. Drolet said, 18,519 t.b. victims (58 per 100,000) died last year. The rate of decline in 1940 was only 2%. According to the decline of the last decade, it should have been approximately 4%. Philadelphia's t.b. death rate rose 5%, Baltimore's 20%, Cincinnati's 21%, Newark's 13%, Akron's 27%, Omaha's 30%.

Mr. Drolet pointed out that our t.b. rate rose after our entry into World War I, that it is now rising in other war-stricken countries. In Glasgow, he said, the deaths from t.b. jumped from 960 in 1938 to an estimated 1,342 in 1941; in Hong Kong they went from 4,443 in 1939 to 5,751 in 1940.

Mr. Drolet warned employers to heed these "danger signals." Said he: "With increased industrial activity and overtime work, it is urgent that corresponding increased vigilance against tuberculosis be maintained. Periodic chest X-ray examinations should be widened to include all workers, and tuberculosis hospital facilities made adequate. . . ."

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