VOL. VIII JULY, 1917 No. 7 EDITORIALS It's The State Department This issue of the OHIO PUBLIC HEALTH JOURNAL is the first under the new State Department of Health. By the will of the Legislature and with the approval of the Governor, the old State Board of Health was abolished, the law creating the State Department of Health, taking effect July 1, 1917. However, stress of war preparedness delayed the appointment by the Governor of the Public Health Council, and the selection by the Council of a State Commissioner of Health, authorized under the new law. The work of the department is continuing under the direction of James. E. Bauman, acting executive officer. THE OHIO PUBLIC HEALTH JOURNAL. which has served for 30 years, under one form or another, as the official organ of the State Board of Health, goes to press for July without carrying the names of the men, who in the future will direct the policy of the State Department of Health, but serving the purpose for which it was originally intended the dissemination of news of interest to local health officials, and the promotion of public health and sanitary work. The new regime is expected to result in a more efficient and up-to-date state health organization, but after all, definite results by the State Department of Health depend upon the work and cooperation of local health officers and the JOURNAL takes this occasion to again urge local health officials to keep up the public health activities and sanitation progress. Smallpox is unusually prevalent in the state, there is an undue prevalence of infantile paralysis in certain sections. Importation of negro laborers from the South gives rise to another serious health problem. We are at war with contagious diseases as well as with the Imperial German Government. It means a long, hard struggle. Full cooperation should. be given to the new state health officials whoever they may be. Be prompt in reporting all cases of notifiable diseases. Let there be no health slackers in Ohio! White Zones Around The movement to clean up and keep clean The Army Camps. the army tarining camps by establishing socalled "white zones" around them is not the mere hobby of any purists or professional reformers, but is an earnest government activity and those inclined to regard it as something to be winked at or pooh-poohed, have an awakening coming to them. Having flourished many years under a policy of silent neglect, venereal diseases are now coming into full recognition as a public health problem and are being treated as such by Federal authorities. (280) The letter of Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, to the governors of all states, printed elsewhere in this issue of THE OHIO PUBLIC HEALTH JOURNAL outlining the regulations required, leaves no room for doubt as to the attitude of our government officials on this important subject. Responsibility for enforcing these regulations is not placed entirely upon the military officers in charge of these camps but upon the local communities and civil authorities as well. Not only those communities in close proximity to the Federal training camps but the more or less temporary moblization points of the National Guard units and the large centers through which soldiers will constantly be passing, in transit to other points, are included. The cooperation of the local communities is respectfully urged by the War Department. If the desired end cannot be achieved it is the announced intention of the government to move the camps from those neighborhoods in which clean conditions cannot be secured. Striking at Source The government recognizes the dangers to which of the Peril. the health and morals of our young men will be exposed, unless we checkmate the predatory forces of evil which will soon attempt to mobilize an army of prostitutes and lay siege to the camps of new recruits just as they did in the Spanish-American War and just as they did on the Mexican border. Preparedness against the veneral disease problem is just as imperative as preparedness against other diseases. It is folly to say that the young men entering the military service are exposed to no more temptations and dangers to their health and morals than the same young men in civil life. Parents who know anything about the old style military camps and happen to have boys now subject to conscription, fear far more the environment of camp life than they do the bullets of the enemy later on. Their fears are well founded and assurance by the Federal authorities that the conditions that have existed in the past will no longer be tolerated that whiskey and prostitutes are taboo, will enable mothers to give their sons to the service of their country with a greater feeling of pride and safety. IF WE ARE TO HAVE UNIVERSAL MILITARY SERVICE IN THE FUTURE, THIS IS INDEED NECESSARY. Must Aid Army Officers * The regular army is already doing excellent work in reducing venereal diseases among the troops- The army is instructing the men to stay away from prostitutes, is imposing prophylatic treatment on those who yield to temptation and is punishing the men who do not report for treatment after exposure and later develop venereal disease. But the government is not going to allow the whole burden of disease control to rest upon the army officers. It is going to see to it that the efforts of its army officers in the control of these diseases are not offset by permitting houses and camps for prostitutes to be established and maintained just outside the reach of the military authorities. The soldier who deliberately violates the orders of his commanding officer and incapacitates himself for service to his country is guilty of an act of disloyalty and should be punished, but officials who wink at the exploitation of our soldiers at the expense of prolonged injury to their health and perhaps the health of future generations is guilty of a far greater crime and is aiding the enemy in a most inexcuseable manner. Ohio Has Remedy In Ohio, at least, officials cannot plead lack of proper laws to abate houses or camps of prostitution wherever they may be carrying on their destructive operations. Fortunately the last Legislature passed a law (House Bill No. 499) declaring places in which lewdness, assignation, or prostitution exists to be nuisances and providing a method for their abatement. This law is now in full force and effect. The full text of the law is printed elsewhere in this issue of THE OHIO PUBLIC HEALTH JOURNAL. Action may be brought in the common pleas court of any county by the attorney general of the state, the prosecuting attorney of the county, or, any person who is a citizen of the county may bring an action in equity in the name of the state, upon the relation of the attorney general, prosecuting attorney, or person to abate such nuisance and to perpetually enjoin the person or persons maintaining the same from further maintenance thereof. A Sensible Suggestion * Hecht, an Austrian Army Surgeon, writing From Austrian Army. in a recent issue of Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift estimates the number of syphilitics in the Austrian Army now must certainly be several hundreds of thousands and complains that they are being treated in hospitals while sound and healthy men are being shot down in their stead. This actually places a premium on sexual infection and spares the syphilitics while the sound are killed. He suggests that a diagnosis of syphilis should be the signal for sending the man to the front. Surgeon Hecht is already denying the soldier afflicted with veneral disease home leave. This restriction had previously been enforced for typhoid carriers. Hecht adds that no one seems to class the venereal diseases with infectious diseases, and is convinced that this neglect to apply measures that have been found reliable with other infectious diseases will avenge itself sooner or later. Hecht says that since the war began, a total equivalent to sixty divisions have been temporarily withdrawn from the fighting because of venereal diseases, and finally suggests, as a warning to candidates. for matrimony, that the daily papers should carry a display advertisement something like this: "Beware of Sexual Diseases. Every couple should mutually demand a certificate of good health before the wedding." If this frightful condition prevails in the Austrian Army it is fair to assume that a similar state exists in the armies of each country. It also indicates what the human race of the future will suffer when all those infected with social diseases return to civil life, bringing with them a condition worse than death on the battlefield. This picture is black, but it need not materialize. If state and municipal authorities will give the government full cooperation in its most commendable efforts to protect the young men who are to constitute the great fighting force of the country, there will not be a great increase of venereal diseases such as has occurred among the other warring nations. It is the duty of every state and city to assist and protect the army. No greater stimulus can be given to recruiting than to give assurance of clean, healthful and wholesome environment surrounding camp life. Public Health Nursing and National Service. The State Board of Health at its June meeting adopted a resolution urging nurses engaged in public health work to seriously consider their responsibility for rendering that service to the nation for which they are best fitted by their training and experience before leaving their posts in response to their country's call for members of their profession. Almost every eligible nurse is now wavering between duty at home and service at the front. Many have already elected to go to the front and others will go soon. Thus arises a serious problem in public health work. While public health nursing is a comparatively new profession, it has become an indispensable force not only in public health work but in all forms of social betterment work. This is especially true of the infant welfare work. Hundreds of babies die every summer whose lives might be saved by the work these nurses are doing in instructing mothers as to proper feeding, etc. Then there are the "eye cases" - the hundreds of new born babes with "sore eyes" who require the most careful nursing that they may not be compelled to go through life blind. Worse yet, the many chronic patients, bed-ridden victims of tuberculosis and other diseases to whom the daily visits of the public health nurse are like a benediction from heaven. War has no terrors for the public health nurse, whether she be engaged in work in the poverty-stricken districts of the large city or the small rural community where her work may be different but no less difficult. It is no wonder then that she should have a strong desire to "go to war." Says the Public Health Nursing Bulletin: "Two young ardent spirits recently replied to older friends, 'I don't know whether my patriotism is strong enough to stay at home.' It is clear that it takes a peculiar kind of courage and devotion to continue the daily round of comparatively unromantic service, and still more to accept appointment in some remote and wholly uninteresting section of our country. But the present time calls for just that sort of heroism, if it is to be glorified along with military service." * More Nurses Needed How shall we meet the problem of supplying the nation with war nurses and at the same time continue the very important work of public health nursing? The problem is being studied by a sub-committee on Public Health Nursing of the Council of National Defense and by health organizations in many cities of the country. First of all, the scarcity of nurses is recognized, and appeal has been made by Miss Jane A. Delano of the National Red Cross to college women and others with educational qualifications to enter the regular hospital training schools for nurses in order to qualify themselves for service to their country. Only graduate nurses are accepted either in the Red Cross or public health nursing service, although Cleveland and many other cities are now calling for volunteer aids, to help fill up the gaps in the public health nursing ranks, caused by the enlistment of the older nurses in the national service. In New York, it is estimated that some 200 nurses are now being called into the service of the Red Cross each month. Hospitals are being urged both to increase the number of pupil nurses entering their schools and to shorten the courses for college women. The better policy would seem to be to recruit the war nurses from the hospital training schools. In the Red Cross service they will be under constant direction and supervision and will only be required to carry out the orders of the army surgeons and physicians. Public health nursing requires more than the mere ability to graduate from a training school. It requires extraordinary tact, diplomacy, nerve and experience. Conservation of the public health is more important now than ever before and the public health nurse, so necessary to this program, should be regarded as serving her country quite as truly as if she were engaged in the more spectacular work at the front. To Avoid Camp Sickness * "Disease germs lead a hand to mouth existence" says the U. S. Public Health Service. It is important that everyone should know this and especially should it be remembered by persons. going camping. Many persons who are ordinarily careful about personal hygiene, even scrupulously neat about their finger nails, when they are working, become ruthlessly careless and neglectful of their personal appearance and even their health when they get two weeks. or a month's vacation, with the result that they very often come back from their vacation with their system full of typhoid germs or some other dreadful disease. Much camp sickness is undoubtedly due to carelessness and neglect of personal hygiene. While the Government is devoting much attention to the preservation of the health of its soldiers in military camps it behooves vacationists to exercise the same degree of care that they may get the most out of their vacation and prevent the spread of disease. Fingers rank next to flies as disease carriers. A safe rule that has been given with reference to avoiding any infection that the hands might carry is to wash the hands immediately before eating, before |