Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-12-15
WAR AGAINST TYPHOID
Vaccination to Be Used to
Make Army Immune.
RESULTS PROVE EFFICACY
Practiced for Years Among English
and German Soldiers.
HARMLESS TO THE SUBJECT
Mai. Straub Explains Method OF
Administering the Preventive and
Good Expected to Result.
RESULTS PROVE EFFICACY
HARMLESS TO THE SUBJECT

| In anticipation of executive aPpioN d.
| Surgeon General OReilly and his medicai
! associates AT the War Department are
making plans to immunizc the army
| against typhoid fever by voluntary vac
cination The policy of the Medical
| Corps is outlined in a statement made pS
| Mai. Paul F. Straub, one of Gen.
| ORelly's assistants.
! There is nothing very new. says MAJ.
Strauh. ''in minimizing people against
| typhoid fever. 1t has been done TO a
| greater or less extent since 1897 What
| is novel is the proposition to make use OF
our knowledge by vaccinatlng soldiers OH
! a large scale against this disease. rev
| individuals have been already treated IN
| this wav i'm the United States. and great
| many English soldiers sent out to lndla
have requested vaccination against ty-
| phoid because they believed that 1t pro
| tected them against sickness ana death.
| The mea sure has also been favorably re-
ceived in Germany. and in the Herrera
| war in southwest Africa almost 5000. or
! half the troops involved. were Vacclnateu
| at their own request. Both the English
| and the German results were very good
| indeed Comparatively few of the vacci-
| mated men came down with the feVer,
| and when they did, they were not so SICK.
| nor were there SO many deaths, as oc-
CURED among the unprotected.
| 1.-The principle involved Is the same one
| that has been used successfully against
| cholera and to certain extent against
| plague. In all three cases the vaccine
| consists of killed and harmless germs.
Effect Only Temporary.
1--WE all know that one attack of ty-
phoid protects a man against second
attack as rule, and 1T is curious and
| fortunate thing that the scientists have
found a way of making a man immune,
/ that is, protecting him against a second
| attack, by the simple process of giving
| him few dead germs. This may give
| him headache and perhaps little fever,
| but it is all over the next day. and from
| that time on he is apparently as safe
| from typhoid another man who was
| sick for six weeks, and perhaps nearly
| died from catching the real disease in the
| ordinary way.
much typhoid existed i'll the civil war
though perhaps many remember the great
amount of sickness caused by this disease
| in camps during the Spanish war. With
out going any futher for examples this
shows how important the question of ty-
phoid becomes. In civil life in the cities
we know that the disease is caused to q
great extent by impure water. infected
milk and vegetables, and that the balance
of the infections are caught from con-
tact with some sick person.
Because typhoid is not contagious in
the way smallpox is many people have
come to regard it disease which is
not catching at all, but this is going
little too far, for we know that it can be
acquired by direct contact, as by nursing
the patient or by indirect contact as by
eating food milk and so forth that has
| been i'll the patients room but which he
had no appetite for. This question of
| contact is always an important factor in
the spread of the disease, and it is much
| more important among soldiers in the
| field than among civilians living at home
In camps we find many soldiers more or
| less crowded in small tents, all eating
the same food at the same bench and
often wearing the same clothing, which
they trade one with another.
"Walking" Cases Most Dangerous.
I'VE know that We have in the United
States, according to the census reports,
more typhoid than is found in any other
country except in Spain, Finland, Serva
| and Italy. and that it Is impossible to COL
| lect regiment of men without finding
| that one or more of them bring the germs
| of the disease along and are taken sick
| inside of a month. If they are sick
enough to go to hospital it is fortunate
for the rest OF the regiment, because
| there. where such things are understood
| there will be no spread of the trouble but
If the man is so-called walking typhoid
| the outlook is not so favorable for his
| companions. By a walking typhoid is
meant a man who, although he may feel
| ill. is still not sick enough to take to
| his bed but keeps up and about and does
his work, and in the meantime he unfor-
| tunately passes the disease along to 9TH
erS.
In camps of young ambitious soldiers
the number of walking typhoids is prob
| ably larger than in civil life. The men
are anxious to make good records They
| wish to be sent to the front and to be
| promoted and they never give I'D if they
can help it. This is all very commend
| able, and they all should be encouraged
| in it, but it makes the problem of lighting
| typhoid very difficult for the sanitarian.
| We do not have much water-born typhoid,
and very little from milk or other food
! but we do have a great deal arising in a
secret insidious way from contact of the
! healthy with men who are only half sick.
! In camps, You must remember, we have
no sewers, and that our bath and toilet
rooms are quite primitive. In addition
dust.
| Approved by Eminent Physicians.
Any one can see that the way to fight
| this disease is not by improving the
water or food supplies; they are, as a
| rule. all right. We must do something
! else, and the measure is now at hand in
anti-typhoid vaccination. 1t has been
tried on an extensive scale and has proved
| satisfactory. The whole question has
/ been considered officially by six of the
I most ilustrious gentlemen of the med
| zeal profession in the United States, and
| they are quite agreed in believing that
! the method of anti-typhoid vaccination is
| useful that it is harmless and that 1t Of
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