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The Birth of the ALA
Intro | TB | Birth of the ALA | VA Sanatoriums | Campaigns | Christmas Seals | Conclusion
- Dr. Lawrence Flick
Trudeau’s work breathed new life into the fight against tuberculosis. In 1892, Dr. Lawrence Flick (1856-1938) of Philadelphia founded the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, the first society in the world to concentrate all of its efforts into the control and cure of TB.
Other state societies and research programs were organized, but there remained a need for a national organization that would raise money for research, for the building of sanatoriums, and, most importantly, for the education of the general public. The scattered regional groups could not possibly reach all 82 million people living in the United States in 1904, an increasing number of whom were migrating into cities, the primary danger zones for TB. Although the mortality rate for TB had declined by nearly 17 percent since 1890, the TB death rate in 1904 was still a frightening 188.1 per 100,000, compared to heart disease at 163.7, and cancer at only 71.5.
- Hermann Biggs
- William Osler
- William Welch
The National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis (NASPT) was formed in 1904 to unify and expand the country’s regional anti-tuberculosis programs. The co-founders of the NASPT were among the most prominent medical men in America: Drs. Trudeau and Flick; Hermann Biggs of New York, who established the first TB diagnostic community laboratory in 1893; William Osler; and William Welch, to name a few. They decided to use Flick’s Pennsylvania Society as a model: the NASPT would be a voluntary organization made up of physicians and laymen. Osler served as chairman at the first general meeting in Atlantic City, 6 June 1904. The group chose Trudeau to be the first president of the NASPT.