The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1911-12-09
THE PROFITS
Of VACCINATION

hcco dug TO q recent dispatch fion
I Washington members Of state mill
ti9s can be vaccinatcd against typhoid
at cost of ~ cents per man. If the
/ present claims regarding this method
are correct, inoculation means immu
mtg from typhoid, hence the more in
EQUATIONS, the l,ss typhoid. This be-
ing the case, if every person in the
United states were inoculated, typho-
id fever would disappear. The charge
is often made by those who oppose
! sanitary measures, that physicians nd
v0cate vaccination on account of the
| graft" there is in it. Let It's suppose
that typhoid vaccination should be
come universal, that every person in
the United States were yaccinated;
and that as q result typhoid fever dts
appeared. How would physicians
gaia, asks The Journal Of the Ameri
can M edical Association. Let us see.
In 1893 there were in the registration
area II ,;75 deaths from typhoid; or
25.3 per hundred thousand Assum-
ing that this ratio holds for the en-
tire country, among the 81, 100. i47 in
habtants of the states, there would be
aboat 5000 deaths from typhoid.
The mortality rate of typhoid varies
from II to % per cent. One death out
of every ten eases would be n conscr-
vative estimate. This wouid mean
that there are about go, 900 cases of
typhoid each year. II the average
cost per case for medical services
were 500. the total yearly income to
the medical profession from typhoid
fever would be ST. 10000. or SSS as
per year, for each of the l30, 600 physi
clans in the Uoitcd STATES Now if
each man, woman and child were in
oculated against typhoid, and il such
incubation were repeated every ten
years. and if typhoid disappeared.
each physician would lose SSS per
year, and the profession as whole
would be ont ST. 500, 600 per year, or
$ll5 000.00o in ten years. But-and
here comes the '..graft"-physician
would he paid for vaccinating the-peo-
pie! How much? If vaccination for
typhoid became as common as vaccl-
nation for small pox, and if physi-
clans did as many free vaccinations as
are now being done by school inspec-
tors, health officers and others, they
could not receive, on an average,
more than ~ cents an individual for
vaccination. Even if every man,
woman and child were vaccinated,
the income to physicians, from vacci-
mating 81 ,l09,447 people every ten
years would only be $9,ll0,944, Or
$9ll ,09j each year. This would be an
average of 81 per year for each physi-
clan. But he would lose SSS i6, his
present average income from typhoid,
SO that his net loss through the intro
duction of vaccination would be $Sl. 4G
per year. or 1911 in ten years. a total
loss to the entire profession of Fl0, $780,
800 year. or $lo5. $4,000 every ten
years. u 1t any wonder that physi-
clans are accused Of graft when such
get-rich- quick prospects
are spread before them? This would
only duplicate the experience of the
med cal profession IN the one hundred
years which have elapsed since Jen-
ner's discovery. 1t is safe to say that
had vaccination never been discover
ed, physicians would to-day be mako
ing $1,000 caring for small pox pa
tents, where they now make 81 for
Yet the ignorant and |
the thoughtless still talk about the
graft" Of vaccination.