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Tuberculosis…the Forgotten Killer

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Tuberculosis…the Forgotten Killer ************************************************************************ The 1976 Christmas Seals memories issue carried this statement: “Since 1970 Americans have been giving to Christmas Seals to fight lung disease, first TB, now emphysema, asthma, air pollution and smoking. It’s a matter of life and breath. ************************************************************************ Kansas is once again confronted with the threat from tuberculosis, long thought to be conquered. The newspapers headlines across the state the last ten years have spread the news of the dreadful disease resurgence. Bringing to mind memories of the tragedy our ancestors endured with the so-called ’white plague’ around the turn of the century. In 1993 leading Kansas newspaper announced: Garden City (AP) “TB outbreak in Finny County nearly out of control, officials fear”; NATION IN BRIEF, WASHINGTON; Study shows spread of TB in flight crews”; TOPEKA (AP) “Resurgence of tuberculosis taxes public health services”; and the TB Alert” in the December Family Circle that same year gave us even more frightening news of a recent survey by the American Lung Association that revealed 64% of doctors don’t know how to treat it. We must re-examine the early years of this disease and educate ourselves as our parents and grandparents did. I can remember not so many years ago when we felt safe and reassured because TB had became so rare. In the early 1900s there was no disease which caused so much hopelessness of sorrow in families as tuberculosis, commonly called consumption in those times. On May 2, 1901 the London Times stated, “10,000 deaths were contributed annually in Great Britain to this dreaded disease.” The London Times continued, “The short hollow cough, the glittering eyes, the hectic flush, the delicate tints and texture of the skin, that became at once piteous and horrifying in the last stages of decay--all these were significant to the family as to the physician.” In America during the early years of the century, tuberculosis was the leading, most feared killer and was known as the ‘White Plague’ because the disease wore down the victims so they grew pale and emaciated. There was no cure for TB and small hope of recovery. Many remember the utter despair that came with the simple announcement that a beloved child or parent was in a ‘decline,’ the first stages of consumption. Kansas had more than its share of the dreaded disease around the turn of the century. It was then that Dr. Samuel Crumbine, a frontier doctor in Dodge City, became appalled at the number on “lungers” arriving in western Kansas hoping to take advantage of the dry air. Many from the crowed cities in the East were so sick he wondered how they were able to travel so far. In 1900 Kansas Governor Stanley appointed Dr. Crumbine to the Kansas State Board of Health, and in two years he became the executive Secretary. In this position with the State Health Board Dr. Crumbine tackled the problem of educating the public of Kansas in how to combat tuberculosis. Dr. Crumbine, believing in the power of slogans, went to a Topeka brick plant with the request to print every fourth brick with his famous slogan, “DON’T SPIT ON SIDEWALK” as a warning to the walking population that disease -- especially tuberculosis -- could be spread by spitting. Soon brick plants scattered all over south eastern Kansas followed suit. In 1958 on their 50th anniversary the Kansas Tuberculosis and Health Association asked anyone who could find one of Dr. Crumbine health bricks to send it to the association. Every county in the state responded. On September 12th 1958 the Coffeyville Daily Journal printed an interview with Charles Günter superintendent of the Coffeyville Vitrified Brick and Tile Company when the decision was made to turn out the health bricks. Gentner recalled “We started printing the ‘health brick’ around 1902. The same year the four brick plants of Coffeyville Vitrified Brick and Tile Company were turning out a combined production of three hundred and thirty-five thousands bricks a day. With every fourth brick printed with the warning against spitting, this would be 83,000 DON’T SPIT ON THE SIDEWALK bricks a day just from one company. Where did all those slogan bricks go? Friends of mine living in the tiny town of Prescott near the Kansas/Missouri border gave me one of the famous bricks. It was unearthed when they decided to plant a hedge across the front of their yard. And discovered a long forgotten brick sidewalk with these bricks intermingled with Coffeyville bricks. The sidewalk, buried about three inches down, evidently had extended the whole block and through the years had slowly became obscured by dirt and grass. No one seems to know when the brick sidewalks were laid, although other health bricks have surfaced in this small Linn County town in recent years. A few older residents remember walking on brick sidewalks long ago as they walked to school. Others recalled razing a house and finding some stacked as supports under the house. The story has been passed down in the town’s oral history that a local gentleman remembered watching the brick sidewalks being laid and later sandburs came up by the thousands from the sand that had been freighted in to use as a foundation for the sidewalks. I have learned that in recent years these bricks have became coveted additions to brick collections nationwide. I was too young to understand my parents’ feelings in 1925 when my Uncle Jesse McGhee’s marriage turned into a horrible nightmare. Soon after their wedding his wife, Aileen, was diagnosed as having TB. She then entered the tuberculosis sanitarium at Norton, Kansas where she died in 1932. Aileen’s father owned a large dairy herd near Tyro, Kansas and at that time vaccinations of cattle were not thought of. Later testing of dairy cattle for TB became mandatory. Following Dr. Crumbine’s health campaign many sanitariums were established to care for the sick and dying. By 1938 there were 732 sanitariums around the country and the victims were being cared for. The Kansas Branch of the Tuberculosis Society was organized December, 3, 1908 in Topeka. By 1909 the State Board of Health had fitted up a tuberculosis exhibit in a special railroad car and sent it all over the state, stopping in each town along the route for a time to allow the public to become acquainted with every aspect of this dreaded killer. Kansas Governor Walter R. Stubbs even proclaimed April 24th 1910 Anti-Tuberculosis Sunday. Revenue from Christmas Seals has provided funds for research, detection and finally treatment of tuberculosis with a dramatic effect on the disease. The spread of the disease began to decline. In 1996 the Christmas Seals were in the form of gift tags designed by Teal Rose Griffey, Washington State National winner of the Kid’s Christmas Seal 1995 drawing contest. TB wasn’t always a killer as noted Kansas journalist, Bliss Isley proved. Isley contacted tuberculosis in 1918 while working for the Globe-Democrat and Post-Dispatch in the St. Louis Missouri area. In an effort to restore his health he moved back to Kansas where he handled publicity for the Federal Food Administration. He slowly recovered from TB but remained in poor health the rest of his life. Isley went on to write many books with his first, “Early Days in Kansas,” written in 1927 and “Four Centuries in Kansas,” a Kansas history book used in schools in the late ’30s and early 40s. His last book, “The Horsemen of Shenandoah,” was published in the winter of 1963, eight months after his death at the age of 74. Later records showed that during 1988 to 1991 tuberculosis killed 32 people in Kansas. In light of today’s headlines maybe our governor will proclaim the last Sunday in April as “anti-Tuberculosis Sunday,” to help rid the state once again of the disease that brought so much terror to everyone with just a mention of its name. Published in Kanhistique magazine December 1997