TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE A Word in Regard to Ohio's Influenza Outbreak... Million Children Need Help Which Ohio Fails to Give. School Hygiene Programs May Be Simple and Yet Comprehensive. To John H. Landis, Builder in the Field of Public Health.. Apply Recently Gained Knowledge and Lower Pneumonia Mortality. Call to Arms Again Sounded in Campaign to Save Babies.. The Mahoning Sanitary Problem and Its Importance to Ohio. Wassermann Totals and Venereal Case Reports Indicate Progress. Some Thoughts Suggested by the 1917 Mortality Figures.. Employers, Guard Your Workers' Health and Increase Your Profits... Influenza - How to Avoid It How to Care for Those Who Have It.. Influenza Has Been Epidemic in Past Years.... Ohio Birth and Death Statistics for 1917, compiled by State Bureau of Vital Statistical Study of Reports of Inflammation of Eyes of Newborn, arranged by MISS JESSIE B. DOERSAM and MISS ESTHER MCCLAIN, Ohio State Division of Public Health Education and Tuberculosis, August, 1918.. Division of Public Health Education and Tuberculosis, September, 1918. Bureau of Publicity, Division of Administration, August, 1918. Bureau of Publicity, Division of Administration, September, 1918. A Word in Regard to Ohio's Since the last previous number of the OHIO PUBLIC HEALTH JOURNAL was issued, the influenza situation has been claiming the attention of Ohio health officials. The disease which for the past year had been epidemic in Europe reached the United States. late in the summer and made its first appearance in Ohio at the close of September. With the first outbreak of the disease in this country, the United States Public Health Service took prompt steps to secure action by state and local health officials for the control of the threatened epidemic. The states responded to the Federal call without delay and as this is written a well-organized country-wide fight is in progress. The course of the influenza outbreak in Ohio can not be predicted at this time, although it is hoped that, by the time this magazine reaches its readers, the disease will have been brought under control. The historical aspects of the present outbreak must therefore be left to a later issue of the JOURNAL while in this number we content ourselves with outlining the official action of the State Department of Health and reproducing some of the mass of educational matter which has been published. Million Children Need Help At the top of a list of "Neglected Fields for Public Health Work," if we were to compile one, would appear this entry: "The Public Schools of Ohio." With nearly a million pupils enrolled, there is, outside of the larger cities and a few smaller places, practically no effort being made to supervise health conditions in the public schools. Nearly a million citizens of the state, at the stage of life when they are most in need of protection and when constructive health work can accomplish results greater than at any later stage, are being allowed to grow up without such attention. Within a few years many men and women-now numbered among these million school children-will be laboring under the handicaps of ill-health and physical defects traceable directly to the lack of efficient health supervision in their childhood. A portion of the burden under which they must struggle will inevitably be shifted to society in general: the next generation will foot the bill for the present generation's lack of foresight. And it must be admitted that that is the method of payment which is prevailing now: the present generation inherited the debt due to the preceding generation's limited vision. One phase of the situation has come sharply to light with the rejection of thousands of young men as soldiers because of physical disabilities which might have been forestalled by proper precautions in childhood, but which are no longer remediable. Military service is only one of the activities in which these unfortunate individuals are unable to play their part; constantly through life the well members of society must be bearing burdens for those who lack the strength to carry their own, and constantly such extra, avoidable loads act as a drag upon society in its efforts to progress. Shall we pass on to our descendants this same kind of dead weight? Or shall we take the simple steps which if taken now will open the way for a healthier, more prosperous and happier state to be? * School Hygiene Programs May Be Plans for giving greater attention to health supervision in any community's schools, or in any individual school, need not include a complex program or an elaborate organization. The things to be accomplished are essentially simple and any organi ization which will accomplish them will be adequate. Here are the chief things to be done: Study the physical condition of each pupil (this should be done by a physician if possible) and provide for the immediate correction of remediable defects which may be disclosed. Remove any conditions in the school building and its surroundings which may promote the spread of disease or may endanger in any other way the physical well-being of the pupils. Develop as comprehensive a program of physical training as may be practicable and inspire in the pupils an enthusiasm for healthful recreation. Make whatever provision may be possible for the prompt detection of communicable disease cases and rigidly exclude such cases from school until recovery is complete, in the meantime co-operating with the health officials in measures for checking any possible spread due to exposures which may have occurred. Educate the parents of the children so as to bring them into sympathy with the school program and secure their cooperation in carrying it out. Such a program as is here outlined can be begun by any teacher or school official with sufficient enthusiasm to interest his coworkers and, if possible, a few outsiders in the need which exists. Such medical assistance as is needed can in most cases be obtained without cost for a time, at least, if funds for the purpose are not available, although plans should provide for the ultimate replacement of volunteer service by a paid organization. At least one nurse is of course to be desired, but if she can not be obtained immediately, volunteer workers may to a certain extent take her place until her employment becomes possible. Existing unhealthful conditions can in most cases be detected by the inexperienced person, with the aid of advice which the State Department of Health will cheerfully supply; if the correction of these demands expenditures for which money is not available, agitation to obtain the necessary funds should be started immediately and in the meantime such remedies as are available without cost should be applied. A program of physical education, which in the beginning at least needs. no equipment other than the school grounds or a vacant lot, can be set in motion by anyone with the right kind of enthusiasm for healthful recreation. Recognizing the simplicity of the problem of school health improvement, one cannot condone the failure of Ohio school officials in general to meet the situation. Recognition of the need should be immediately followed by action to correct the present conditions. |