Every County Urged to Fight Typhoid Fever, 1918

“Every County Urged to Fight Typhoid,” from the Jackson County Journal, Sylva, N.C., published Aug. 9, 1918

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.