Full Citation
Title: Controlling TB in a World without Antibiotics: Isolation and Education in North Carolina, 1932-1940
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2014
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Abstract: Once thought to be a disease of the past, tuberculosis is making a worldwide resurgence due to the advent of drug resistant strains of the disease. As out pharmacological weapons become less effective, some are calling for a return of sanitaria, institutions from the time before antibiotics that have been credited for causing a pre-antibiotic decline in tuberculosis mortality. However, no quantitative studies have been conducted to validate this claim and there has been no research that has identified the primary mechanism through which sanitaria could have made such an impact. Using data from North Carolina, this paper measures the impact of sanitaria on the decline in tuberculosis mortality. Results from an instrumental variables approach indicate that access to an additional sanitaria bed reduced the death rate from tuberculosis for white residents by .695 per 100,000 and had no impact for black residents. Interpreting these results through the lens of an epidemiological and through reducing the likelihood of disease transmission by educating the public in hygienic practices.
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Authors: Hollingsworth, Alex
Publisher: University of Arizona
Data Collections: IPUMS USA - Ancestry Full Count Data, IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Fertility and Mortality, Health, Race and Ethnicity
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