VOL. IX

APRIL, 1918.

No. 4

Army Reports Progress

in Venereal Disease Battle

EDITORIALS

Cause for rejoicing is found in a recent statement from the office of the surgeon general of of the the army regarding the prevalence of venereal diseases among United States soldiers in recent months.

The strenuous campaign of the army medical authorities for the suppression of venereal infections, supported by widespread activities of civilian health agencies, has had a marked effect on the case rates since the mobilization, according to this statement.

One of the most striking features of the report is found in the statement that the lowest rate ever reached in the army was that for the two months from December 7, 1917, to January 25, 1918, covering the holiday period, when greater opportunities for exposure might have been expected to bring a rise in rate. The annual rates per 1,000 men for the three branches of the military forces during that period were as follows:

Regular Army
National Guard

National Army

69.7

44.6

74.3

That this low record was achieved during a period when more men than usual were away from the direct supervision of the military authorities and from the safeguards put about them in camp, speaks well for the civilian health authorities of the country.

The report indicates that public health workers, both military and civilian, have awakened more completely than ever before to the necessity of handling the venereal disease situation as an important health problem, and that by such awakening they are at last placing themselves in a position to get the upper hand over our greatest health menace.

Why Not Call a Spade a Spade, Mr. Editor?

The changing attitude of the newspapers toward the frank discussion of the venereal disease problem is doing much to aid in the solution of the question. Where a few years ago practically all edi

tors would have excluded all mention of the subject from their columns, many are now willing to deal with it in a manner free from prudery.

There is still one step, however, that many papers have not yet taken. Many still refuse to refer to venereal diseases by name. A certain degree of circumlocution may lose little in effectiveness, but when so heavy a veil is thrown about all allusions that the true meaning is. obscured, there is need for a change.

To cite a specific example: recently the State Department of Health issued a statement regarding the causes of baby deaths in Ohio. One sentence in it read in part: “Tuberculosis, syphilis and convulsions kill from 125 to 175 babies each." One paper printed it this way: "Tuberculosis, a serious hereditary blood disease and convulsions kill . . .”

An article in another paper informs us that the number of cases of "social diseases" is decreasing, and then continues: "The most violent. of these diseases dropped from 15 cases in January, 1917, to only one case in January, 1918. A lesser form of disease was reduced half, from 22 cases to II."

This Department would be the last to complain a great deal about the course most papers are following in relation to the campaign against venereal diseases, for it realizes clearly the importance of the part they are playing. And it offers no serious objection to such terms as "sex diseases," "social diseases," etc., provided the meaning is perfectly clear to the hurried reader. But it does suggest that misleading phrases should be avoided and that perfect frankness is the best course.

The education of the public in this matter has progressed to such a point that the newspaper publisher need not fear that frankness will offend many of his readers.

Protection for Munition
Workers Subject of Study

The report of the Division of Industrial Hygiene on oil infections in machine. shops, submitted in this issue, offers the first definite results from the Department's program to safeguard the health of munition workers, which was announced at the beginning of the present year. The investigations upon which the report is based were carried out in a large industrial plant, with the thorough co-operation of the owners.

Enough time was consumed to make the research an exhaustive one, and the conclusions reached deserve the careful consideration of other employers engaged in similar lines of work.

The services of the staff of the Division of Industrial Hygiene are at the disposal of any manufacturer who wishes to protect the health of his employees. Investigations will be made upon request and remedies

to fit the individual case will be prescribed after the situation has been studied.

At the present time, when the nation's production of war materials must be maintained at maximum efficiency, it is highly important that our industrial man-power be conserved. To aid in this important phase of conservation, the State Department of Health strongly urges munition makers to avail themselves of the services of its Division of Industrial Hygiene.

Health Officer Should Stay

on His Own Side of the Fence

Strange as it may seem, the leaders

in several local movements in Ohio to let down the bars against hograising in town for the period of the war have been the health officials of the towns in question.

We can understand how a health officer or health board member might yield to pressure from outside and grant what appeared to be a popular demand that pigpens be permitted we can understand it, even though we can not approve the policy.

It is beyond our understanding, however, that a health official can hold such a mistaken idea of his functions that he will feel it necessary to take the lead in a movement of this kind.

As we see it, the duty of a health official as a public servant is at all times to champion the cause of public health and sanitation. should fight always for the strictest of sanitary regulations. Ideally, he should permit no relaxation of such regulations; practically, he should permit no relaxation to which he is not driven.

Hog-raising in town is admittedly inimical to public health. One recent writer has commented that a town must choose between raising hogs and raising babies. This being the case, it is the duty of the health officer to fight to the last ditch against the introduction of hogs. If the health officer deserts the cause of public health, who can be expected to defend it?

All of us, it is true, are anxious to do our part in food conservation. Where food conservation and health conservation clash, however, the duty of the health official is clear.

Let the food administrator urge "equal rights for hogs" if he must, but let the health officer speak up for his human constituents.

Babies Are Dying; What Are
You Going to Do About It?

Infant mortality statistics for January, given elsewhere in this issue, show this year opening with a baby death rate

practically as high as usual. This is the situation which child welfare.

workers have feared would come in 1918, and this is the situation to meet which the "Children's Year" plan was inaugurated.

Those who have been inclined to doubt the practical importance of the child conservation measures which have been undertaken should be convinced by these up-to-the-minute figures. No argument should be necessary to prove that the only answer to a rising death rate is to set effective preventive machinery in motion at once.

Local health officers, public health nurses, physicians and other persons acquainted with public health methods can do no service of more importance at present than to co-operate with and guide the volunteer workers who have enlisted for the baby-saving campaign.

Steps should be taken at once, in every county where they have not already been taken, to organize child hygiene work, with both men and women playing an active part. Where organization is complete, care should be exercised to co-ordinate all agencies engaged in the work.

The task ahead is to reduce the death rate which has been set down in cold figures for January. Every activity tending toward the accomplishment of that task should be willingly and enthusiastically supported.

"They Have to Have It, So They May as Well Get It Now"

Here is an item, with only names and addresses omitted, from a recent Ohio city newspaper, which,

for its educational value, might well be reprinted in every paper in the country:

Yet parents refuse to consider whooping cough a serious disease! Yet physicians and health officers in many cases consider it lightly and fail to take adequate precautions to prevent epidemics!

Meanwhile baby lives continue to be snuffed out, just because nobody. takes the trouble to save them.

See That Soda Fountains
Are in Sanitary Condition

Local health authorities will do well to give a little attention just at present to the degree of faithfulness with which proprietors of ice cream parlors and soda fountains in their communities

are carrying out the regulations of the State Department of Health with regard to sanitary conditions in such establishments.

Leaflets containing these regulations can be obtained from the State Department of Health. For convenience the regulations are reprinted here:

Rule 1. In order that the sale of ice cream, sodas and soda fountain sundries may be conducted under sanitary conditions the operators of ice cream parlors and soda fountains are hereby instructed that all such goods shall be dispensed only in clean or sterile containers. To this end it is ordered that all soda fountains and ice cream parlors be provided with facilities for the thorough cleansing of dippers, glasses, spoons, serving dishes and any other vessel or utensil coming in contact with ice cream, sodas, or soda fountain sundries.

Rule 2. Facilities for the cleansing or sterilization of dippers, glasses, spoons, serving dishes and any other vessel or utensil coming in contact with ice cream, sodas and soda fountain sundries shall include

(a) An adequate supply of hot and cold water of a quality suitable for drinking purposes.

(b) Suitable arrangements for supplying boiling water or live steam. (c) Suitable provision for taking care of clean or sterile glasses, dishes, etc., so as to keep same clean until wanted for use.

(d) Spoons must be exposed to boiling water or live steam for a period of five minutes.

Rule 3. All dishes and utensils, after each individual service, shall be first washed by rinsing in cold water, then thorough washing in hot water with soap or suitable cleansing powder, or exposed to live steam or boiling water for a period of three to five minutes, then rinsing in clean cold water and draining.

In lieu of the above requirement or when it is found impossible or inexpedient to use live steam or boiling water, sterile dishes, cups and spoons manufactured from paper, wood or any other suitable material, and handled in a sanitary manner, and used for one service only, will be allowed.

Rule 4. Refrigerators at soda fountains shall be kept clean by washing with hot water and soap or washing powder.

Rule 5. Employes in ice cream parlors and at soda fountains shall be cleanly in person and dress, free from infectious and contagious disease and trained in the conduct of their work.

Rule 6. The use of straws is forbidden except when such straws are protected from dust, dirt and handling by employees or others.

Rule 7. As soon as empty all ice cream containers, milk and cream cans shall be thoroughly rinsed with cold water and covered so that no foreign matter may enter said containers or cans.

Rule 8. The foregoing rules and regulations shall take effect and be in force on and after January 1, 1916.

Adopted September 23, 1915.

Amended March 17, 1916.

Under Section 1238 of the General Code of Ohio, "local boards of health, health authorities and officials, officers of state institutions, police officers, sheriffs, constables and other officers and employes of the State