Tuberculosis Essay

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facilities were initially “limited greatly by the lack of special wards or buildings where such cases could be isolated”. (Godias and Lowell 1952) The lack of proper facilities were only exacerbated by the conditions that people lived within the city.
Tuberculosis was commonly associated with dirty, poorly lit conditions, and a significant group of the population lived in tenements characterized by dark ill ventilated areas. Daniel Freund, provides an example of these conditions using a Jacob Riis picture entitled “Baby in slum tenement, dark stairs –its playground”.(Freund 2012) The title of the picture is self-explanatory, and the idea is clear, that the darkness and dirty conditions bred disease and contributed the spread of tuberculosis. These conditions were addressed by modifications to the building code outlined by the Tenement Act of 1901.
Daniel Freund notes that the act resulted in the terraced structure of buildings that allowed a greater infiltration of light into the city below. The impact was used to redesign new residential buildings in a manner that drastically increase exposure to sunshine. (Freund 2012) The design is still apparent today in the designs of the Chrysler building as well as the Empire state building and the push for light became central to the reduction of disease in the city.
Heliotherapy became important during this time because it was used in the treatment of Tuberculosis. New research had emerged that ultraviolet light, contained in the solar spectrum had antibacterial properties. Dr. Woloshyn makes a note that medical practitioners at the time were aware of various published experiments conducted by Louis Pasteur, Arthur Downes and Robert Koch which proved the antimicrobial characteris...

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Woloshyn, D. T. (2011) Our Friend, the Sun: Images of Light Therapeutics from the Osler Library Collection c.1901-1944. McGill University source: http://www.mcgill.ca/files/_nea/170546_ourfriendsun.pdf

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