Valdez daily prospector., 1913-06-18
WHOOP|NG-COUCH
 IS DANGEROUS
Plea for Efficient Control of This Most Serious and Fatal
 Disease.

tlSllcS cDmplled by the united States Census Bureau in 1906, from a registration area com prising slightly less than one half of the population of the United States, there were 6,324 deaths from whooping-cough in that area in children under 3 wears of age. The United States Public Health Reports shaw that in 1910 the death rate per hun- dred was as follows: WhOOping- cough, IA per cent; scarlet few CT, i,6 per cent; measles, I2.3 per cent, and diphtheria, 2I. per cent.
 In order to get some more re- cent statistics l wrote to all the state boards of health, asking for the number of deaths from WhOOping-cOugh, scarlet fever and diphtheria during the year 1911, and also for those from bronchitis and bronchopneumOn- ia in children under 5 years of age. also asked for informa- tion as to the state regulations regarding notification, quaran- tine, disinfection and school at tendance in relation to whoOp- ing-cough. The reports from 30 states show that G,25i died of whooping-cough, i,232 from scarlet fever and 9,579 from diph- theria in these states during the year 1911. Three thousand eight hundred and sixty children under 5 years of age died of bronchitis and brOnchO-pneumonia during the same period in eleven states in which ,2l6 died of whooping- cough. It is, of course, impOs- sible to know in how many of these cases the bronchitis and brOnchOpneumOnia were second ary to whoOping-cough. They were undoubtedly due to it, how ever, in considerable propOr- tion of them. These deaths should be added to those from Whooping-cOugh. The relative mortality from whoOping-cough, scarlet fever and diphtheria is essentially the same throughout the country, WhOoping-cOugh beA Ting almost everywhere more fla tai than scarlet fever and less fatal than diphtheria. Whoop- ing-cough is an especially ser iOuS disease in the Southern states, as is shown by the fact that in North Carolina 736 chil- dren died of WhOOping-cOugh in 1911 against total of i47 from scarlet fever, measles and diph- theria combined. The death rate from WhoOping-cOugh in North Carolina in 1911 was 32.2 per cent against Ii.i per cent for the whole United States.
 also wrote to the boards of health nf a considerable number of cities scattered all over the United States. asking the same questions, and roceivctl replies from SiXty-One. ranging in size from Livingston. Mnnt.. with a population of 5000, tu New York 1 Manhattan and Bronx with a population of 2.76O.0OO. If Chi cagO and New York are excluded. the relative mortality from the | three diseases under conSidera- tion is he same as that in the United States as whole. When they are included, the figures are as. follows: Whouping-cough. ,327; scarlet fever, 2,0li; diph- theria, 3,539.
 There were 6,90S deaths from bronchitis and bronchupneulnOn- ia in children under , years of age in 40 cities in which there were I,O22 deaths from Whoop- ing-cough. Although there were many exceptions, the death rate from whooping- cough was, on the whole, as would be expected. greater in the large cities than | in the small.
 It hardly seems necessary to give any more statistics to prove what a serious and fatal disease WhoOping-cOugh is and to show that, instead of being trifling affair as it is usually considered to be by the laity, it is condi- tion of the utmost gravity. Any disease which kills ten thousand children per annum is,' as Ruck- CT says, "a serious one. If bu- bonic plague were to kill that many children in the United States in one year, the whole world would quarantine against our country. X child dead of WhOOping-cough is just as dead as: a child dead of plague" Ger tain other points in relation to the mortality are, however, of great importance.
 German statistics, covering period of eleven years, show that the mortality among those at tackled with the disease is: Un- der one year of age, 26.8 per cent; between 1 and years, 13.8 per cent: between 7 and years, 3 per cent, and between 5 and i5 years, i.8 per cent.
 Ninety-six per cent of the 6,32A deaths from Whooping-cough in the United States in 1906 were in children under 5 years of age. Fifty-seven per cent of the fatal ities were in the first year, B per cent in the second, 8 per cent in and 2.5 per cent in the fifth year. It, is comparatively mild affec- tion in healthy children over 5.| years old, and after puberty 1t iS