Treatment or Prevention? the matter of Priority in the Anti-tuberculosis Movement at the Turn of the 20th Century France

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze discussions on the matter of priority in treatment and prevention that took place in the medical community, the government and social hygiene associations to tuberculosis referred to as one of the national calamity in France at the turn of the 20th century. In other words, it is to show that treatment and prevention have complementary properties in France’s anti-tuberculosis movement, considering the discussions on which institutions should preferably be expanded - between the Sanatorium that values medical treatment and the anti-tuberculosis dispensary that values social prevention.</br>Tuberculosis, which is known to have existed from the ancient times, spread to the era of industrialization and urbanization, resulting in a large loss of lives in the second half of the 19th century following cholera in the first half of the century. Starting in Germany in the middle of this century, Sanatorium established a treatment for tuberculosis patients with air therapy, proper exercise or rest, and diet. In France, a public Sanatorium was built for the lower class, not like a luxury resort style Sanatorium for the wealthy class, from the 1890s. The spread was slow, however, due to financial problems. In the 1900s, anti-tuberculosis dispensary as a health center were increasingly built in working class quarters. The debate over whether to support the sanatorium or the dispensary was ignited at first, but since the mid-to-late 1900s, the two institutions’ roles, namely, medical treatment and social prevention, have been recognized as complementary. The Anti-tuberculosis dispensary Act of 1916 and the Sanatorium Act of 1919 systematically supported the complementary relationship between treatment and prevention in fighting against tuberculosis.