Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1911-08-03

SAN III .#. "
Philadelphia 1903 deaths and 9,721 cases. In
every case the death rate has been terrible. ris.
Ing, in many instances, to several hundred nor
100000 population.
The U. s. Census Bureau report for 1908 shows
1l'5f5 typhoid deaths in the registration area,
and Tor 1909 there were 1922 deaths-an aver
age OF about 1000 a years. The registration
area includes only 81 per cent of the total popu-
latlon, and does not include the South, where the
typhoid rate is very high. In ten southern states
the average rate has been 70. Twenty thousand
deaths a year." says DR.. William Guilfoy, Regis
trar Of Vital Statistics of New York City, would
be a very conservative estimate of the total an
nual typhoid mortality" Certainly this is a con-
serVat1Ve estimate, for the complete census of
1900 showed 35B79 typhoid deaths that year.
For the sake of being conservative, however, let
us take DR.. Guilfoy's figures. They are large
enough.
The dead, it has long been held, amount to not
more than o%ne-tenth of the total number of those
stricken. But recent studies" to quote Mr..
George G.. Whipple, indicate only one death in
Is or Is cases." If we allow one death for every
twelve cases-an estimate that DIR. Guilfoy says
Is entirely within the mark-we shall have the
tremendous annual total of about $50, 900 cases.
Think Of it-a quarter Of a million people yearly
stricken with typhoid!
Recall the largest parade you ever saw-say
one with $4,000 troops in line-and think how
those serried ranks marched past hour after hour
until your eye grew tired Of watching them.
Then multiply that parade by ten, and imagine
what an enormous army 250,O0O persons would
make. That is exactly the size of the army, re-
cruited anew every year, that this country forces
to 1ght-typhoid fever.
Like any other army, this army, too, costs
money. In this case, though, the cost is in the
form of economic loss. Statistics compiled by
the Connecticut Board of Health show that t-
phoid carries people off in the years Of their
greatest earning capacity, Al per cent of the
deaths occurring to persons between the ages of
20 and 40, and so per cent to persons between 10
and 40.
The economic loss thus caused reaches a stag.
gering total. The cost of the epidemic at Plym-
outh, it is shown by Professor Mason, amounted
to more than $115,0OO, divided as follows:
Loss of wages of those who recovered J.. 10000
Cost Of caring for the sick ............ $1,000
Years earnings of the dead ........... 1S,419
$115,539
In making this estimate, however, allowance,
was made for the loss of only one years earn
ings, An examination Of an insurance mortality
table shows that the man who dies before he is
forty dies before his time. Hence his death
represents a loss, not of one years income, but
of many. Five thousand dollars is the sum at
which a life Is usually valued in reckoning eco
nomic loss. The typhoid loss is based only on
the number of those who die. AS Mr.. George
Whipple points out, there is an added loss occa-
stoned by ~non-fatal typhoid Illnesses that should
also be taken into account. The average period
of typhoid convalescence, as figured from 500
cases in a Pennsylvania hospital, is 43 days.
Hence loss Of wages plus cost Of medical at
tendance would easily average 500 for every
person who RECEIVERS. If ten recover for one who
dies, then an extra $1,000 must be added to the
$4,000 allowed for each death, making the total
economic loss caused by every typhoid death
$4,000.
Figured on this basis the loss to many COM
munities amounts to millions Of dollars yearly.