The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1913-01-03
POSSIBLE TO PUTAN
. END TO SMALLPOX
General Vaccination Would Entirely
Eliminate 1t, Says Georgia
Board of Health.

unnecessary diseases, may be easily
erad1cated from Georgia as well as
any other state, says the Georgia
State Board of Health, by the simple
process of vaccination; but to accom-
pllsh this result vaccination must be
general, thorough and complete.
Unfortunately statistics as to small
pox in Georgia are lacking; they are
kept only by one or two of the larger
cities. But in 1910, thirty-six states
reported 30,362 cases with Ais deaths,
showing marked increase over the
preceding year both in number and
death rate. Taking the states around
Georgia, Florida with 1885 cases and
II deaths, showed marked increase;
Tennessee's report Of 2,199 cases was
incomplete; North Carolina reported
4.2S1 cases, while there were no re-
ports from South Carolina, Alabama
or Georgia.
Prevalence of smallpox in Georgia
is not questioned; little is said of it
except when it becomes epidemic or
semi-epidemic in particular locality;
then a vaccination crusade is started,
but often too late to protect many of
the victims.
Smallpox is one of the oldest Of
epidemic diseases. There are refer
ences to it dating back 1000 years
before the Christian era. In Europe,
in the middle ages, it's death roll
would run as high as 100000 in a sin
gle year. 1t was brought to America
early in the seventeenth century, and
has been more or less prevalent here
ever since.
Smallpox is considered unquestion-
ably a germ disease, but the germ is
one about which scientists as yet
Gnow nothing. What they do know,
however, beyond all question, is how
to prevent 1t. Nearly everyone ex-
posed to it who is not protected by
vaccination or who has not had the
disease at some previous time, will
contract 1t. 1t may be gotten by d.
rect contact, such as shaking hands
with one VINO has 1t, or indirectly by
sleeping In bed which has been oc-
cupled by a smallpox patient. There
is reason to believe even more remote
contagton may take place. Every
case of 1t comes from some other
case, either directly or indirectly.
Ten days, two weeks or even
longer time may pass before the
symptoms deyelope. Then comes a
severe chill followed by a rapidly dis.
ing fever and severe aching pains in
the back, joints or head. After
couple of days of fever rash appears
usually first on the forehead, and the
fever subsidies. The rash, at first
pink or reddish splotcheS, smooth and
fat, developes in a few hours into
little hard rounded bumps under the
skin. These spread over the entire
body, developing blisters as they
grow. The patient again deVelopes a
fever, and the blisters, filled first with
clear fluid, become filled with cor
ruption. The patient presents hor-
rible picture. The skin is covered
with mass of pus, the eyes are clos
ed by the swelling and the diseased
flesh gives forth a horrible odOr.. AT
ter about twelve days the eruption
begins to heal, the blisters dry up and
finally the skin is covered with fine
scales from the top of the eruption
which are believed to contain the con-
tagion of the disease. The patient is
contagious until all the pustules have
dried up and scaled off and the skin
over them is smooth. Sometimes
great pits are left in the skin which
disfgures the patient for life.
The disease in the United States,
of late years, has been of the milder
type, said by some to be due to the
less virulent strain of the infection.
Notwithstanding this there have been
severe outbreaks at various points in
the United States with an eXces-
sively large mortality. There is no
guarantee that the next outbreak in
Georgia may not be of the severer
type, exacting heavy death toll.
But mild or not, no one wants
smallpox: no one wants it around
him. An absolute and certain meth
cd of prevention has been known for
more than a century In 1910 Edward
Jenner, an English physician, heard a
dairymaid say: Il cannot take that
disease because | have had the cow
pox' Impressed by this statement
he spent quarter of a century study
ing the problem, announcing his dis
covery in 1898. He inoculated a boy
with cowpox Six weeks later he in
ocua:ed Him with virulent smallpox
virus, and no i'll effects followed; al
though frequently inoculated thereaf-
ter. the boy never took the disease
Just in proportion as the practice Of
vaccination spread after that date,
the scourge of smallpox diminished
1t was the virus from the COW that
protected the boy; it is the same vi
rus, made under approved sanitary
conditions, that protects those who
are vaccinated today.
That, briefly, is how vaccination
came about; time and tests have
proven its effectiveness and value be-
yond all question. In Germany where
every person must be vaccinated,
smallpox has practically disappear
ed. In the same manner smallpox
could be made to disappear from
Georgia, or from the United States,
within three weeks, never to return,
II