The 1917 Red Cross Christmas seal campaign was the most successful Ohio has had, the Ohio Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis reports. More than seven and one-half millions of seals were sold, as compared with fewer than six and one-quarter millions in 1916. The $75,342.36 raised in the recent campaign for the anti-tuberculosis fight has been divided. among organizations as follows: local communities, $56,637.92; Ohio Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, $11.331.13; American Red Cross, $6,623.97. Ohio will have to increase her stamp sales by 75 percent to meet her 1918 quota, it has been announced. * * * Three sewage disposal plants, of which two are under construction, will make up Cleveland's disposal system, which has been under discussion for several years. The plants will be located as follows: one on the lake front at East One Hundred and Fortieth Street, one on the lake front at West FiftyEighth Street and one in Newburg Heights. The system has been planned to be adequate for a city of one-and-a-half to two million inhabitants. It will cost two million dollars. The system of treatment to be employed is to be decided upon after a report is received from experts who recently studied. the situation. * Immediate construction of a city detention hospital was urged by the Youngstown board of health m a letter to the safety director of that municipality last month. The present structure is said to be too small to care for the city's communicable disease patients. City officials at Warren have selected a site for a new detention hospital. * Steubenville's city council recently authorized the expenditure of $500 for a "pest house." * * * Toledo physicians are urging two steps to combat venereal diseases in that city. The proposed measures are: Immediate establishment of an emergency hospital and laboratory, and issuance of bonds for an adequate municipal hospital for these and other communicable diseases. Entered as second-class matter at the Postoffice at Columbus, Ohio, under the Act of August 24, 1912. Ohio's Heavy Investment in Smallpox- DIVISION OF COMMUNICABLE DISEASES. ..........Director and Epidemiologist ..Statistician DIVISION OF CHILD HYGIENE. FRANCES M. HOLLINGS HEAD, M. D..................... WILLIAM F. DUFFY... ADEN E. SMITH.. ABSENT ON LEAVE FOR MILITARY SERVICE. JOHN R. MCDOWELL, M. D. .Director DIVISION OF PLUMBING INSPECTION. .Director and State Inspector .Deputy State Inspector Deputy State Inspector E. I. ROBERTS AMY L. MERCER, R. N. F. G. BOUDREau, M. D. Offices and Laboratories of the State Health Department are located on the Ohio State University Campus. The offices are in Page Hall; the Laboratories are in the Hygienic Laboratories' Building. TABLE OF CONTENTS EDITORIALS - War's Greatest Credit Item; You Can Help Increase It- Shall We Continue Low Typhoid Prevalence Through Summer? - Typhoid Prevention Is Summer Duty of Every Health Officer - New Regulations Compel Quarantine of Whooping Cough Cases - What April Statistics Mean to Ohio's Baby-Saving Campaign - Physicians Who Can't Go to War Can Serve at Home - Rabies, a Disease in Which Delay May Be Fatal - Lack of Epidemiologist Responsible for Delays - Embalming Recognized as Protection in New Shipping Rules - Medical Supervision in Schools Will Improve Children's Health- Lowering Death Rate Means Improving Nation's Health..... Local Health Organization in Ohio..... Venereal Disease Number Next Month.. Physical Education in Ohio Schools. By FRANCES M. HOLLINGSHEAD. Ohio's Investment in Smallpox. By E. J. SCHWARTZ and Sara Kerr... PAGE What Counties Did in Baby-Saving in First Four Months of Year.... Recently Adopted Regulations of the State Department of Health DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS BY DIVISIONS (MAY, 1918) — Division of Communicable Diseases..... Division of Public Health Education and Tuberculosis. HEALTH OFFICERS' ROUNDTABLE — Vaccination Again ! — Fifty- Four Cents for Health Found, a New Excuse - Venereal Quarantine Approved Springfield Health Report - "Them's Our Sentiments!"- Making a Flyless Town - You and the Newspapers - Health Officials Win Suit Health Plans for Schools.. Vol. IX JUNE, 1918 No. 6 War's Greatest Credit Item; EDITORIALS "The greatest credit item which the army medical corps has placed upon the war ledger, in the six months that the men have been in camp, is the prevention of some 13,000 cases of venereal disease. This is the number of men who would have had sex maladies, gonorrhea or syphilis, had they stayed in civil life, and who have remained healthy and fit only because we went to war. "This figure is conservative: reckons only our advance, in the conquest of this disease, over the army conditions of peace times. If civilian figures were available, the credit would be greater. "Our measure of success in stamping out venereal disease has come from compulsory education in the army, from medical treatment, disciplinary measures, and from community co-operation. The army rate. for peace times, although it was a gratifying reduction from civil rates, still was higher than our present figure because of the indifference of the public. "Community sources of infection were not within the control of our medical corps. Now that the army is growing to millions, and every family or so has a son in it, we find it easier to arouse interest. Sources of infection are being wiped out, prostitution suppressed, alcohol prohibited, education on the subject promoted, and wholesome recreationa! facilities provided in camp and community. The next six months should make a better showing." With the words here quoted Surgeon General Gorgas of the United States Army opens an article on "The Credit Side of Our War Ledger" in Collier's Weekly. In them you read the official pronouncement of the army authorities on the importance of the campaign against venereal diseases and of the results it has achieved. Full credit, it will be noted, is given to civilian health agencies which have co-operated with General Gorgas and his corps. State and local authorities, backed by the aroused community interest to which General Gorgas refers, have given valuable assistance in the movement and the surgeon general is quick to acknowledge this support. |