The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-02-03
DUE TO ANTI.T0XIN.
How Science Has Stopped the. Raw
ages Of Diphtheria.
OUT OF 1853 CASES BUT 100 DIED
GreAter MOrtality,but Il Lower Death
Rate Than In Previous
Years.

while the number of cases of diphtheria
ana the number of deaths from this cause
IN 19Ol were the largest ever known in a
single Year in Minneapolis, it is a notable
TACT that the death rate was the lowest
on record, There were 1868 cases re-
ported to the health department, and. the
deaths We're 1870. This is five or six times
Inc number Of deaths from this cause re-
corded for several years, and almost
double the number reported in any pre-
Vlous year. The death rate, on the other
nand, was but 1912 per cent, against 1875
IN l9OO, IL per cent for the two or three
years previous to Athat time and more
than 70 per cent for the years prior to
1880, When the antitoxin method of treat
ment was first used. a,s.--..
The situation is an exceptional one and
leads Health Commissioner Hall to give it
unusual attention in his report to the
council Just completed. The fact that
there have been SO many more cases re-
ported the past year may be due in some
degree, he says, to the more general use
by physicians of the culture tubes. for
purposes of diagnosis and the consequent
detection OF mild cases that otherwise
might have remained undetected, passing
for tonsilitis or some other less harmful
affection of the throat y-H- Fl
The decrease in the death rate he
ascribes to considerable extent to the
use OF the culture tubes, and still more
TO the general application Of the anti
toxin treatment. By the use of these
tubes the disease is detected in Its mi
t1al stages and prompt treatment made
possible. He notes, however, that there
are still many physicians who depend
upon clinical diagnosis of the disease
alone, and he declares that by the use
of the pew method of diagnosis in all
cases of sore throat and the early use
OF anti-toxin, not only for it's curative
effects upon the sick but also for the
purpose of immuning others exposed,
dfphtheria can be largely stamped out.
DR.. J. F. Corbett, the city bacteriologist,
adds testimony to the same effect in his
report. He says that the errors of dag
nosis have by the use of the culture tubes
been made less than half of one per cent,
and adds that when We compare this
with the amount of error in clinical work,
the value of the culture tubes method is
conclusive In the past four years 20
per cent of the cases diagnosed clinically
as tonsilitis have proved to be diphtheria
he says.
The Typhoid Situation.
Health Commissioner Hall in his re-
view OF the typhoid situation, says that
there have been more cases than should
exist in city Of the size of Minneapolis,
and declares that there can be no doubt
ClldL LILO CITY WdleI Is ISSly i6SpOuS1Dl6.
The total number of cases reported was
$50, and there were 121 deaths. In 1900
the cases numbered 376 and the deaths
49, In 1899 the figures were SGT and Il.
The number of deaths has been ex-
ceeded in but two previous years, 1893 and
1897. The third, fourth, fifth and ninth
wards show the largest number( .
There were 361 cases Of smallpox dur
ing the year. DR.. Hall alleges the pro-
tective effects Of vaccination and declares
that this is indisputably shown by the fact
that of the whole number, but one had
been recently vaccinated and but three
had ever been vaccinated. He also points
out that the department removed seventy
seven persons from private homes to the
quarantine hospital, vaccinated all ex-
posed and no secondary cases developed
where the operation proved successful.
In round numbers there We're 10000 per-
sons vaccinated in 1905: DR.. Hall recon-
mends that the legislature pass COM
pulsory school vaccination law.
Health Commissioner Hall has named
DR.. H. j. Tunstead, at 900 a year, to
assist him in the smallpox work. There
are now but thirty-ive cases of smallpox
in the city, Of which twenty-five are at
the quarantine hospital. There were
thirty mine new cases in the first half Of
January and but fifteen for the second
half