Dr. S.E. Buchanan, head of the Cabarrus County Health Department, is preparing now for a most comprehensive campaign against diphtheria in this county this summer. July and August, as a rule, are the months in which diphtheria is most prevalent, and Dr. Buchanan and his assistants are laying their plans now for a campaign that will be completed in all parts of the county by the time the most dangerous months arrive.
the fight against diphtheria at present is meeting the same response, generally speaking, as did the campaign against typhoid fever when it first started. People do not dread typhoid fever now because most of them are inoculated with the serum that prevents the disease taking hold. They have seen the benefits of the typhoid serum and they know it is all right.
They are not yet familiar with the diphtheria serum and for that reason it is hard now to make them have their children treated in advance. It is true that in most cases the toxin saves the child’s life even after the disease is contracted, but the toxin antitoxin works almost as efficiently, and it keeps the child from being infected.
It is the campaign for this treatment that Dr. Buchanan is planning. He wants to get every child in the county, between the ages of 1 and 6 years, inoculated before the summer months set in. If he can do this, there will be few cases of the disease in Cabarrus county this year. The treatment is given free at the office of the county health officer. All the parent has to do is to carry the child to Dr. Buchanan’s office. The child is not old enough to know what to do. The parent must act for him and it is a wise parent that has his child inoculated against this deadly disease.
From the editorial page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Tuesday, March 18, 1924. J.B. Sherrill, editor and publisher; W.M. Sherrill, Associate Editor.
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