Sanatorium

For the musical group with the same name, see Sanatorium (band).

One of the remaining turrets of the Grunwald Sanatorium (now Sokolowsko, Poland).

A sanatorium (also spelled sanitorium and sanitarium) is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis (TB) before antibiotics. A distinction is sometimes made between "sanitarium" (a kind of health resort, as in the Battle Creek Sanitarium) and "sanatorium" (a hospital).

History

The rationale for sanatoria was that before antibiotic treatments existed, a regimen of rest and good nutrition offered the best chance that the sufferer's immune system would "wall off" pockets of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) infection. In 1863, Hermann Brehmer opened the Brehmerschen Heilanstalt für Lungenkranke in Görbersdorf (Sokołowsko), Silesia (now Poland), for the treatment of tuberculosis. Patients were exposed to plentiful amounts of high altitude, fresh air, and good nutrition. Tuberculosis sanatoria became common throughout Europe from the late 19th century onwards. The Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium, established in Saranac Lake, New York, in 1885, was the first such establishment in North America. According to the Saskatchewan Lung Association, when the National Anti-Tuberculosis Association (Canada) was founded in 1904, its members, including renowned pioneer in the fight against tuberculosis Dr. R.G. Ferguson, believed that a distinction should be made between the health resorts with which people were familiar and the new tuberculosis treatment hospitals: "So they decided to use a new word which instead of being derived from the Latin noun sanitas, meaning health, would emphasize the need for scientific healing or treatment. Accordingly, they took the Latin verb root sano, meaning to heal, and adopted the new word sanatorium."

Switzerland used to have many sanatoria, as health professionals believed that clean, cold mountain air was the best treatment for lung diseases. In Finland, a series of tuberculosis sanatoria were built throughout the country in isolated forest areas. The most famous was the Paimio Sanatorium, built in 1930 and designed by world-renowned architect Alvar Aalto. It had rooftop terraces where the patients would lie all day on specially designed chairs, the Paimio Chair. In Portugal, the Heliantia Sanatorium in Valadares, was used for the treatment of bone tuberculosis between the 1930s and 1960s.

In the early 20th century, tuberculosis sanatoria became common in the United States. In the early 1900s Arizona's sunshine and dry desert air drew many people (lungers) suffering from tuberculosis, rheumatism, asthma and various other diseases. Wealthier people chose to recuperate in exclusive TB resorts, while others used their savings to make the journey to Arizona and arrived penniless. TB camps in the desert were formed by pitching tents and building cabins. During the tuberculosis epidemic, cities in Arizona advertised the state as an ideal place for treatment of TB. There were many sanitariums in the state of Arizona modeled after European away-from-city resorts of the time, boasting courtyards and individual rooms. Each sanitarium was equipped to take care of about 120 people. The greatest area for sanitariums was in Tucson, with over 12 hotel-style facilities in the city. By 1920, Tucson had 7,000 people who had come for treatment of tuberculosis. So many people came to the West that there was not enough housing for them all. In 1910, tent cities began to pop up in different areas; one of which was described as a place of squalor and shunned by most citizens. Many of the infected slept in the open desert.

The first tuberculosis sanatorium for blacks in the segregated South was the Piedmont Sanatorium in Burkeville, Virginia. Waverly Hills Sanatorium, a Louisville, Kentucky, tuberculosis sanatorium, was founded in 1911. It has become a mecca for curiosity seekers who believe it is haunted. Because of its dry climate, Colorado Springs was home to several sanatoria. A. G. Holley Hospital in Lantana, Florida is the last remaining freestanding tuberculosis sanatorium in the United States.

In 1907, Stannington Sanatorium was open in the North East of England to treat tuberculosis in children. The sanatorium was opened using funds raised by the local charity, 'The Poor Children's Holiday Association', now the regions oldest children's charity, Children North East.

After 1943, when Albert Schatz, then a graduate student at Rutgers University, discovered streptomycin, an antibiotic and the first cure for tuberculosis, sanatoria began to close. As in the case of the Paimio Sanatorium, many were transformed into general hospitals. By the 1950s, tuberculosis was no longer a major public health threat; it was controlled by antibiotics rather than extended rest. Most sanatoria were demolished years before.

Some, however, have been adapted for new medical roles. The Tambaram Sanatorium in south India is now a hospital for AIDS patients. The state hospital in Sanatorium, Mississippi is now a regional center for programs for treatment and occupational therapy associated with mental retardation. In Japan in 2001, the ministry of welfare suggested changing the names of a leprosarium to a sanatorium.

As a resort

Palace of Princess Anastasia Gagarina — now the administrative centre of the sanatorium "Utos", located in the seaside town of Utos, in Crimea, Ukraine.

In Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet Union republics, the term "sanatorium" is generally used for a combination resort/recreational facility and a medical facility to provide short-term complex rest and medical services. It is similar to spa resorts with medical services.

In popular culture

• The Magic Mountain, a novel by Thomas Mann, is set in a sanatorium.
• In Erich Maria Remarque's novel, Three Comrades, Pat goes to a mountain sanatorium to stay over the winter.
• In The Dressmaker, a novel set in the 1950s by Beryl Bainbridge, one of the characters goes to a sanatorium for treatment.
• Alice Cooper's concept album, From The Inside, was based on his experiences at a New York sanatorium for alcoholism treatment.
• The critically acclaimed novel The Rack, by A.E. Ellis (pseudonym of Derek Lindsay), is set in a T.B. sanatorium in the French Alps.

The former Firland Tuberculosis Hospital, the sanatorium where Betty MacDonald was a patient. The building is now a private Christian school, King's High School.

• In her semi-autobiographical novel, The Plague and I, Betty MacDonald described her diagnosis and year in a sanatorium near Seattle, Washington.
• In the film My Neighbor Totoro, the mother appears to be recovering in a sanatorium.
• Andrea Barrett set her 2007 novel The Air We Breathe in the Adirondacks at an early 20th-century TB sanatorium.
• In the western Tombstone, Doc Holiday goes to a sanatorium for treatment for TB.
• In Silent Hill Origins, Travis goes to the Silent Hill sanatorium.
• In Battlefield 2 Special Forces, there is a map called Devil's Perch, of which a capture point is a Sanatorium.
• "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" is a well-known song by the heavy metal band Metallica.
• In Koji Suzuki's Ringu, the well where Sadako drowns was originally on the grounds of a T.B. sanatorium in Japan.
• W. Somerset Maugham's short story Sanatorium concerns the lives and deaths of tuberculosis sufferers in the north of Scotland.

Black Hill Sanitarium is a song by heavy metal act King Diamond. Judith March Davis in the memoir of her mother "Pagoda Dreamer" describes the Michigan State Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Howell

See also

• Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium
• Losheng Sanatorium
• Waverly Hills Sanatorium

Notes

Vanadzor Sanatorium

References

• The Sanatorium Age: "Sanatorium" vs. "Sanitarium", The Saskatchewan Lung Association.
• Waverly Hills Sanatorium still source of local curiosity, Douglas Kleier, Jr., Louisville Cardinal Online, Oct. 21, 2003.