Why was TB so Common in Newfoundland?

Living conditions and general health played an important role in whether people got TB. People who were healthy and had plenty of good food, fresh air and vitamins did not get the disease as easily as those who were run down and had poor diets. Overwork, worry and stress also led to infection.

In Newfoundland, during the Great Depression of the 1930s, the number of TB cases rose. During 1933-37 one third of the Newfoundland population was on Public Relief (the dole). Because of worry and poor diets, these people were weak and had little resistance to the disease. Poor people got the disease quicker than rich people. Dr. James McGrath had this to say about TB and the poor in 1939:

There is no doubt...that in every country, Newfoundland included, poverty and tuberculosis go hand in hand. In the more progressive countries tuberculosis has almost become a class disease, the well-to-do being comparatively free and the poor being susceptible almost in direct relationship to the degree of poverty.⁷

Poor people had worse food, less medical attention, less education and often lived in overcrowded and poorly ventilated houses. All of these things contributed to the spread of TB.

The climate was another reason why so many Newfoundlanders got TB. Many people spent a lot of time indoors during the winter because of the harsh weather. As in Tessie's story, they often gathered in one heated room. If a person had TB and did not cover their coughs and sneezes, it would be easy for someone else to pick up the disease.

In cities, the situation could be even worse. In 1945 two English doctors, T.O. Garland and P. D'Arcy Hart, came to Newfoundland to do an independent study of tuberculosis. They found that 12.5% of registered deaths in Newfoundland were from TB. In England, during the same period, only 5.5% of deaths were from tuberculosis. Garland and Hart were convinced that living conditions played an important role in the high incidence of TB in Newfoundland. They found the slums of St. John's—with over 900 houses without sewage connection—particularly bad. Garland and Hart pointed out that low living standards provided a breeding ground for tuberculosis. They said that TB was a social disease that something could and should be done about. They thought the government could work harder to improve the standard of living in Newfoundland by providing better housing, sanitation and nutrition: