A Working Plan for Colored Antituberculosis LeaguesWertenbaker, Charles Poindexter
Science
A Working Plan for Colored Antituberculosis Leagues
Wertenbaker, Charles Poindexter
Tuberculosis -- Prevention
_Membership._—Membership in the church leagues should not be confined to
the members of the church organizing the league. As a rule it is better
that the members of each church join their own church league, but if for
any reason their church has no league there should be no objection to
their joining the league of some other church. Those who are not members
of any church should also be allowed to join the league.
_Details of the work of a church league._—As soon as the church league
is organized the president should appoint the four standing committees
required by the by-laws to serve for one year, viz: “Finance,”
“Information,” “Sick,” and “Sanitation.” The details of the work to be
done may then be considered. One of the first of these is to ascertain
how many of the members have or are suspected of having tuberculosis.
This duty devolves upon the committee on the sick, which should get from
the secretary a list of the members, giving the name and address of each.
This list should be gone over and every member carefully considered. It
is probable that the greater number of the members are personally known
to the committee, and thus it can be told at once whether they are sick
or well.
The committee is not expected to decide whether these members have
tuberculosis. Their duty is to make out the list of the sick and ailing.
The physician will decide the nature of the sickness.
It is desirable to find cases of consumption in the earliest stages, for
these may be cured, and if all members who are not strong and healthy are
examined by the physician it is possible that cases of early consumption
will be found.
Each ailing member should be visited by some of the committee and more
careful inquiry made as to the nature of the trouble and the member urged
to go to a physician or a dispensary for examination. This is especially
true if the member has been losing flesh, or has had a cough for some
time, or has throat trouble, or is sickly and frail. If upon examination
the physician finds that the member has consumption, the patient should
get a certificate stating that fact. The physician will also tell the
patient what treatment is necessary.
The certificate will be presented to the committee by the patient, and
the committee will make more careful inquiry into the condition of
the patient, the treatment considered necessary by the physician, the
patient’s means, the number of people he has depending upon him, etc., so
that the facts may be presented to the executive board in accordance with
the requirements of Article VII of the by-laws.
The list of the sick should be most carefully guarded and no one allowed
to see it but the officers of the league and the health officers. This
knowledge should be regarded as a sacred confidence that should not be
divulged except to the persons mentioned above, as many might object to
having it known that they have tuberculosis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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