Center for Labor Education & Research, University of Hawaii - West Oahu: Honolulu Record Digitization Project
Honolulu Record, Volume 10 No. 2, Thursday, August 15, 1957 p. 2
Travel and TB
Travel is broadening, they say, but it may also broaden the tuberculosis problem for Hawaii. Experts predict that globe-trotting may increase our chances of getting TB, unless world-wide control of the disease is affected.
Great progress has been made against TB in America. The death rate has declined sharply and should continue to be low if TB control programs are continued at the present rate. In the past, it is believed; most Americans became infected with TB germs when they were young, even though those who broke down with the disease did not do so until later in life. Infection rates in children have been declining in recent years as efforts have increased to find and hospitalize adults with "open" TB.
If this trend continues and our standard of living remains high, there should be fewer -new cases in years to come.
Against this trend, however, stands the fact that Americans are increasingly likely to -travel in parts of the world where TB is more, prevalent. In the service of government or business some live for considerable periods in parts of Asia, the Near East,, and other places where the disease is endemic. Many of today's children may grow up without meeting TB germs until they are exposed to the disease in foreign lands. So, in the end, they may suffer from the disease in spite of our nationwide TB control program.
What is the answer to this problem?Americans of today and tomorrow aren't going to stay at home. We all want to see the world. The only answer is world-wide control of tuberculosis. The United States can't be an island of safety in this small world. The Territory's tuberculosis association, through the National Tuberculosis Association, is a part of the International Union against Tuberculosis and contributes to the increase and spread of knowledge about TB throughout the world.