WORLD TB DAY

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Torrens; she should always know we leave the best until last.

Mrs GERAGHTY (Torrens) (16:28): Thank you; how very kind of you. I am sure many people know that Sunday 24 March is World TB Day. World TB day commemorates the discovery of the tuberculosis bacterium in 1882 by German physician, Robert Koch. At this time, tuberculosis was the cause of approximately one in every seven deaths in Western countries, and before Koch's discovery, it was widely believed to be a hereditary disease.

While tuberculosis gradually declined in the Western world over the ensuing decades, in much of the world today it still infects millions and causes millions of deaths, mainly in developing countries. For example, in 2011, 8.7 million people fell ill with TB and 1.4 million died. All countries are affected by tuberculosis but 55 per cent of cases occur in Asia, 30 per cent in Africa and 35 per cent in India and China. World TB Day is, therefore, aimed at raising public awareness that tuberculosis is still an epidemic disease.

In 1998, a United Nations ad hoc committee on the tuberculosis epidemic established a global partnership to stop TB. The Stop TB partnership which operates through a secretariat hosted by the World Health Organisation in Geneva, includes hundreds of government and non-government organisations across the globe. Its goal is to accelerate social and political action to stop the spread of TB. Strategies include programs for proper diagnosis and detection, regular supplies of anti-tuberculosis drugs, supervision of patients to ensure a full course of drug treatment is taken, new vaccines and promoting financial and political commitment to the struggle against the disease.

I wanted to bring the house's attention to World TB Day not only to highlight the ongoing global struggle against this terrible disease but also to talk about one of the many political and governmental firsts achieved in South Australia. At the end of 1898, the South Australian parliament was the first in Australia and among the first jurisdictions in the world to pass legislation making tuberculosis compulsorily notifiable to health authorities as a contagious disease. This was quite an achievement because even though tuberculosis was largely accepted as a contagious disease by this time, some doubts about its contagiousness still lingered.

The South Australian Legislative Council was fortunate in having as one of its members, Dr Alan Campbell, a prominent South Australian physician who was very active in matters of public health. He first proposed making tuberculosis notifiable in 1896 when the parliament considered a public health amendment bill dealing primarily with the control of infectious diseases. The Central Board of Health, however, disagreed with Campbell on the need to put this disease in the contagious category. The bill lapsed because the parliament determined that the colony needed a new consolidated public health act.

The parliament considered a redraft of the bill in 1897. This new bill proposed extending public health powers in the area of managing infectious diseases through notification and supervision of sufferers but tuberculosis was not included. On the advice of Horatio Whittell, the president of the Central Board of Health, management of TB was to be limited to regulation of the milk and meat industry. Whittell believed, erroneously, that the ingestion of infected food and milk was the primary form of transmission of TB rather than infected airborne particles. Campbell, however, pursued his proposal pressing the point that the main source of contagion was human to human.

Opponents of Campbell's proposal fell into two categories: some questioned the veracity of the medical science and others simply believed it was too difficult to implement. Ebenezer Ward did not believe the scientific evidence that tuberculosis was contagious, declaring that Campbell's proposal would make the colony a laughing stock. More pragmatic opposition from the Central Board of Health and supported by James O'Loghlin, the chief secretary, centred on the expense and complexity of notifying and then managing such a pervasive disease, a disease that could last for many years. Other infectious diseases such as diphtheria were acute and short-lived by comparison.

Despite these objections, Campbell garnered enough support from his parliamentary colleagues to have tuberculosis inserted into the bill as a notifiable disease under a separate clause. The clause passed 10 votes to six in the council and was carried in the House of Assembly. The act was assented to in January 1899 producing another Australian first for South Australia.

Moving forward 114 years, Australia is part of a global fight against tuberculosis. Our near neighbour, Papua New Guinea, has the highest level of tuberculosis in the Pacific region and AusAID supports the Papuan government in its struggle against tuberculosis. Australia contributes to the global fund to fight diseases such as tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria. Days such as World TB Day remind us that much of the world does not enjoy the same level of health that we enjoy in Australia.

I think it is worthwhile for everyone to remember that vaccination is not something that should be taken lightly. We do not have things like polio. I have a brother-in-law, who is slightly younger than me. He had polio as a youngster and he is now suffering from post-polio syndrome. It is exceptionally painful and, at some stages, he finds it somewhat debilitating.

While we do not have polio outbreaks these days, as we did when he was a youngster, if we do not vaccinate, we will again have that to contend with and more children will suffer. As for tuberculosis and those diseases, we need to be very mindful, and I must say that Campbell was quite a remarkable fellow.

At 16:36 the house adjourned until Tuesday 19 March 2013 at 11:00.