Sanatorium
A sanatorium (from Latin sānāre 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium,[1][2] is a historic name for a specialised hospital for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments, and convalescence.
One sought, for instance, the healing of consumptives especially tuberculosis (before the discovery of antibiotics) or alcoholism, but also of more obscure addictions and longings of hysteria, masturbation, fatigue and emotional exhaustion.
Facility operators were often charitable associations, such as the Order of St. John and the newly founded social welfare insurance companies.
The first suggestion of sanatoria in the modern sense was likely made by George Bodington, who opened a sanatorium in Sutton Coldfield in 1836 and later published his essay "On the Treatment and Cure of Pulmonary Consumption"[3] in 1840.
The rationale for sanatoria in the pre-antibiotic era was that a regimen of rest and good nutrition offered the best chance that the patient's immune system would "wall off" pockets of pulmonary TB infection.
[5] In 1863, Hermann Brehmer opened the Brehmersche Heilanstalt für Lungenkranke in Görbersdorf (Sokołowsko), Silesia (now Poland), for the treatment of tuberculosis.
"[7] Switzerland used to have many sanatoria, as health professionals believed that clean, cold mountain air was the best treatment for lung diseases.
Medical experts reported that at 2,200 feet (670 m) above sea level, air pressure was equal to that in blood vessels, and activities, scenery, and lack of stress also helped.
[10] In the early 1900s, Arizona's sunshine and dry desert air attracted many people (called "lungers") who had tuberculosis, rheumatism, asthma, and numerous other diseases.
Wealthier people chose to recuperate in exclusive TB resorts, while others used their savings to journey to Arizona and arrived penniless.
A. G. Holley Hospital in Lantana, Florida, was the last remaining freestanding tuberculosis sanatorium in the United States until it closed on July 2, 2012.
[17] 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.
[18] The state hospital in Sanatorium, Mississippi, is now a regional center for programs for treatment and occupational therapy associated with intellectual disability.
[21][22] This Labour Code guaranteed at least two weeks of annual leave for all workers,[23] recommending that it be spent at a sanatorium for health reasons.
[24][25] Fictional stories that are set in sanatoriums often make use of the isolated locations of these health care facilities, high in a mountainous region.
