The North Carolina State Board of Health has been joined by
Governor Bickett and the State Council of Defense in its efforts to eliminate
typhoid fever in the state. The three agencies together are urging County
Commissioners of the imperative need for taking definite and immediate steps
for the protection of the people of their respective communities. A few
counties have well-organized county health departments and good work is already
being done against typhoid. The great majority of counties, however, have no
organized health work, and it is to the commissioners of these that the
pressing necessity of the situation is brought home in letters going forward
from Governor Bickett, Dr. D. Hill, Chairman of the State Council of Defense,
and Dr. W.S. Rankin, Secretary of the State Board of Health.
“We know and all admit that typhoid fever is one of the most
preventable of the preventable diseases. Communities fortunate enough to have
alert and intelligent officials in charge have greatly decreased and almost eliminated
this disease. What has been done in some communities can be done by others, the
cost being small and fully within the economic means of any community in North
Carolina,” writes Dr. Rankin.
Two plans for carrying forward the work against typhoid are
suggested. The first plan is estimated to cost from $25 to $200 in proportion
to the size of the community and the prevalence of typhoid fever in it.
Briefly, this plan is that arrangement be made with a reliable physician to
call at each home where typhoid fever occurs within 48 hours after the disease
is reported, to carefully and clearly explain pamphlets prepared and furnished
by the State Board of Health on the proper disposal of excrement and fly
control and to vaccinate members of the household who have not been vaccinated.
The second plan is estimated to cost from $200 to $700 and
provides for the employment of one or more physicians to conduct free typhoid
vaccination dispensaries throughout the county, the vaccine to be furnished
free by the State Board of Health, together with needed advertising matter.
The typhoid situation in the State is at present
particularly embarrassing to the State Board of Health and to all North
Carolinians because the situation in the State is giving concern to the officers
of the Army on account of its bearing on heath conditions in military
encampment.
Drafted men going from communities in the State in which
typhoid fever prevails into military camps may carry the disease into the
camps, convey it to others and impose unnecessary sickness.
The plans will be presented simultaneously before the boards
of county commissioners at the regular August meeting, and it is expected that
virtually all will adopt one or the other method proposed to combat the disease
which entails a useless economic loss and the loss of hundreds of lives each
year.
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