ABSTRACT

Buenos Aires and Philadelphia public health officials shifted their views: having ignored children, who were thought rarely to have tuberculosis, they subsequently sought to protect children from being infected by tubercular adults. Public health officials focused not on the very ill, but on children who were pre-tubercular. The children appeared healthy, and there were few pre-tubercular and tubercular children. The Jewish community of Philadelphia, like the one in Buenos Aires, provided for poor children. Children under the age of two, who were poorly nourished, died in larger numbers from tuberculosis than older children. Poor children, who attended school in small numbers, were the most likely to contract tuberculosis. Children from poor families also worked to contribute to the family income. Poor women often thought that they had no option but to leave their children with the Casa de Expositos, Casa de Huerfanos or the Hospital de Ninos. Schools provided food and milk to children with poor diets at home.