Smyrna Times

Stern. But Justified

Fifteen men were arrested recently in New York City. Their crime? They had tuberculosis in its active, infectious stage and had refused treatment.

The men were placed in a penitentiary hospital. They were arrested under a seldom-used section of the city health code, which empowers the health department to take action against those in the community who are considered a menace to the health of others.

The men arrested will be discharged from the penitentiary hospital when they are no longer infectious.

These are stern measures, indeed, but in the circumstances justified. Tuberculosis is a serious, highly infectious disease. A TB patient who is coughing up large numbers of TB germ may be as infectious for tuberculosis as a child is for measles, a highly contagious disease. Maybe even more so.

By way of experiment, air from a tuberculosis ward was channeled to a guinea pig exposure chamber. As contrast, another chamber of guinea pigs was set up, just like the first one, except that the air the animals breathed was irradiated with germ-killing ultra-violet light before it reached them.

A large number of the guinea pigs in the first chamber became infected with TB germs. Not only was it shown that the tuberculosis germs were borne on the air to the test chamber, but the investigators were able to pinpoint the patient who infected specific guinea pigs. One patient alone was responsible for infecting 15 guinea pigs in only three days of exposure.