The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-03-21
The Progress Of Diphtheria.

The annual report of the State Board
of Health presents some important
facts regarding the prevalence of diph-
liberia, the most important of the
zymotic diseases. Probably few per-
sons are aware of the extent of the
havoc worked by this scourge. For
three years past almost exactly one
third of all the mortality from con-
tagious diseases has been due to it, and
during the past year the percentage
showed a slight increase. During the
winter months it sometimes reaches
nearly one-half the mortality under
this head. The total number of deaths
from diphtheria has been increasing
during the past three years, being
$4,000 in 1886, and during the twelve
months ending December l, 1887, 6,271
out of $4,000. 1t is more destructive
than diarrhGal diseases, which, in sum-
mer, cause two-thirds of the deaths
from zymOtic diseases. 1t was especially
prevalent during last autumn, causing
1922 per cent of the deaths from zymotic
diseases, but did not reach the grim
average of the preceding winter, when
it caused no less than AZ &C per cent of
such deaths. Practically the same state
of things exists in the Northern States
generally and in the northern countries
of Europe. Investigations are steadily
in progress in all countries so afflicted
as to the causes of the disease and the
possibility of restricting it, These all
point to the general fact that the per-
sistence of the disease is due TO the
presence of filth in some form. Epi-
denies in villages and small towns,
where the sanitary conditions are more
easily determined than in the large
cities, have demonstrated this so often
that it hardly needs to be proved. Any
thing which poisons air or water may
be set down as cause of diphtheria,
and recent cases have even brought
milk within the category of the agents
of contagion. Lack of drainage and
the contamination of wells and cellars
by leaking cess-pOOls are among the
most obvious causes of contagion. But
there are others quite as dangerous
which are commonly supposed to be
harmless. The board reports that there
is too great an indifference to the dam
ger from kitchen wastes, which is quite
as great as from more offensive &C
cumulations. The New Jersey Board
of Health has also directed attention
strongly to neglected cellars as a cause
of diphtheria. This is point of great
Importance, for the air in the cellar will
surely find its way up into the house.
A vigilant cleanliness is the best pre-
ventive of diphtheria. The board re-
ports that the experience of the past
year has made the necessity of isolation
in Tho oe ho
apparent than ever. All the evidence
tends increasingly to show that the
germs of the disease may be carried by
persons in good health who have been
in contact with the sick, that they find
place in clothing, bed-clothes and all
other fabrics, adhere to the walls, and
wherever they settle retain their power
for mischief for a considerable time
If the patient is properly isolated these
germs will die in time, or can be de-
stroyed by fumigation after the patients
recovery and removal. The board
recommends that the isolation should
be for long time, at least until entire
recovery from sore throat. A special
evil is the too early return of children
to school after an attack. In these two
measures, cleanliness and isolation, the
sole hope seems to lie against the
spread of diphtheria. A notable in
stance of the effective use of isola-
ton and dsinfection on large scale
has been afforded in Michigan. The
State Board of Health enforced this
policy in 116 outbreaks in 1886, in
which there were 332 cases and seventy
seven deaths, but in 102 outbreaks,
where no restrictive measures were
taken, there were ! $50 cases and 800
deaths. This is sufficient to show that
when diphtheria has actually broken
out its ravages can be much dmn-
ished by a stern quarantine.-Ne
York Tribune.