Dunse History SocietyBringing the history of Dunse to life
"TB or not TB"
Talk by Mrs. Rosi Capper of Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland
24th. November 2010
24th. November 2010
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The chest heart and Stroke Society (CHSS) has been an independent Scottish Charity since 1990 changing our name to CHSS from the Chest Heart and Stroke Association at the same time. All our work focuses on our mission statement which is;
"To improve the lives of people in Scotland affected by chest heart and stroke illness, through medical research, advice and information and by providing support in the community". |
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Every penny raised in Scotland is spent in Scotland and we work closely in partnership with the Scottish government although we receive no funding whatsoever, National Health Service Scotland and many other partners to ensure that our work addresses the needs of people living in Scotland with those three long term conditions and our work is carried out as energetically here in the Borders and in Berwickshire as it is elsewhere in the country.
But our history as a medical charity reaches back more than a century, 111 years in fact to 1899 the same year as the outbreak of the Boer War when the National Association for the prevention of Tuberculosis (NAPT) was set up across the whole of the United Kimgdom. This body brought together the most distinguished doctors of the day to work for the eradication of the disease, primarily through public health education and by relieving the suffering of those affected. To this purposes in 1910 a procession of horse drawn caravan exhibitions began travelling up and down the county giving lectures, cinematography films and lantern slides with information about T.B. Two years later in 1912 the first open air sanatoria and dispensaries were opened by NAPT. Some might even recall queuing for chest X-rays in the 1950s.
So what exactly is this disease all about? Otherwise known as consumption or the white plague T.B. is a disease caused by the germ mycobacterium tuberculosis which usually attacks the lungs at which point the condition becomes infectious and requires treatment. Poor and cramped living conditions , a poor diet, poor hygiene and no recognised treatment other than rest and fresh air meant that the disease could really get a hold in 18th. and 19th. century Britain and it was able to pass easily from person to person by droplets i.e. through coughing, sneezing and through spit.
At that time T.B. was responsible for about 1 in 8 deaths in the U.K. and in Scotland alone in the 1850s about 7000 died from the disease every year.
TB was also called The Romantic Disease as it brought with it a delicacy, frailty and a melancholy sensitivity which befitted poets and musicians. Lord Byron said in 1828 "I should like to die of consumption" and George Sand, Chopin's lover described him as " a poor melancholy angel" and "coughing with infinite grace".
Also several operas and novels embodied consumptive heroines as for instance in "Les Miserables", La Traviatara and La Dame aux Camelias.
In fact TB was seen as a "good death" as it was a slow and gradual one allowing the sufferer to put his or her affairs in order before they died. Also a consumptive appearance was very much sought by young upper class ladies who wanted to look pale and interesting and they powdered their skin deliberately to look wan and colourless.
During World war 1 specialist nurses worked with the war injured while at the start of WW2 in 1939 NAPT initiated mass radiography as an additional preventative measure.
However, although a German bacteriologist called Robert Knock (a rather unfortunate name for someone working with a disease known for its racking coughs) had succeeded in isolating the infectious agent known as T.B. bacteria and getting the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1905 it wasn't until 1945/6 that the first successful antibiotic was discovered. Called streptomycin it was developed from samples taken from a dung heap and a sick chicken's throat and it was a Scottish born vet, William Feldman who helped to refine it in the United States.
In 1948 the first Scottish only branch of NAPT was created by a very small group of Edinburgh doctors and in the 1950s Dr. John Crofton who died only very recently at the age of 97 introduced the so called Edinburgh Method - treating T.B. using a combination of three different antibiotics which had such an incredible success rate that it was adopted throughout the whole country and is still seen as the gold standard treatment for the disease. By the late 50s and 1960s T.B. was all but eradicated.
Sir John was knighted for his work in 1977 and remained on the Board of NAPT until just before his death, much of his work being supported and paid for by the Charity.
By the 1980s the use of BCG vaccinations and better living conditions helped to make TB really a rare disease but one not unheard of. In the shadow of such famous Scots as Robert Louis Stevenson and Alexander Graham Bell, well known names such as George Orwell, Tom Jones, Ringo Starr, Tina Turner, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela and our very own Bill McLaren were all survivors of the disease.
Accordingly by this time NAPT was looking for another focus so it added 'chest and heart' to its character with powerful anti-smoking campaigns until in 1959 the Charity changed its name completely to the Chest and Heart Association in the 1970s adding Stroke to its name. In Duns a local stroke group was founded in the 1970s alongside many others in Scotland ten years before becoming a totally independent Scottish charity.
In the ensuing two decades the Society blossomed and a network of charity shops opened, the first one in Peebles and six other stroke groups opened in the Borders, specialist stroke nurses were employed, heart failure services set up and fund raising events such as the Forth Bridge abseil became big money earners. Currently the Society has an income of over 7 million in voluntary giving, donations, fundraising and N.H,S grants and legacies.
Coming back full circle, where is our T.B. or not T.B.? Over the last 20/30 years the number of TB cases in the U.K. has been slowly increasing year on year and in 2008 there were just under 9000 recorded cases of which 452 were in Scotland.
There are a number of arsons for this including poverty and homelessness, alcoholism, immigration from countries with a high incidence of TB., increased long haul travel, Aids/HIV and other diseases that weaken the immune system and a lack of awareness of the symptoms because of the relatively low incidence over recent years.
The fight continues.