A concept of treating tuberculosis and restoring patients to useful, productive lives by getting them out of bed months ahead of current procedures while treating them with so-called “wonder drugs” was described by a National Jewish Hospital team of physicians here tonight.
But in order for a “total job” to be done, patients must be reconciled to almost doubling the present period of hospitalization under strictly controlled conditions, Dr. Sidney H. Dressier, medical director, and Dr. Gardner Middlebrook, director of research and laboratories at the interfaith tuberculosis hospital, pointed out.
“The time has come to alter our concept of tuberculosis treatment materially, to stop merely helping people to live with the disease, and to center an all-out attack on the germ causing the malady, the tubercle bacillus itself,” the doctors declared in advocating extension of pilot studies they made during the past year.
Their studies have indicated, they said, that prolonged bed rest — once the classic tuberculosis treatment — does not add to the efficiency of treatment with antimicrobial drugs. They reported that patients with no toxic symptoms or fever have been removed from bed rest in from eight to 10 weeks. Even those requiring surgery are taken off ambulatory routines for only a short period pre-operatively and are returned to rehabilitation schedules in from three to four weeks following the operations.
The medical-research team expressed conviction that treatment with isoniazid, or INH as the newest of the tuberculosis “wonder drugs” is called in further abbreviation of its full name — isonicotinic acid hydrazid — combined with the “keep them active” method used in their pilot study rehabilitation work, not only will restore patients to useful, fully productive lives, but will reduce the number of breakdowns, or recurrences of tuberculosis among discharged patients.
Opened in 1899, the National Jewish Hospital has operated continuously on voluntary contributions as a non-profit non-sectarian institution. It has provided free care for more than 50,000 patients from upwards of 6,000 communities.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
