Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-06-06

Investigating
WANT A COMh.4osIoN TO Elk
ANIME INTO CAUSES OF
SICKNESS.
VlLL ASK FOR some help

Also Want a System OF Register
tering Epidemic and Endemic
Diseases.
New York, June 5.-On the srounC
that illness in this country is causing
huge economic losses, mounting ever!
year into hundreds of millions of dol
lars. the Association of Life lnsur
ance Presidents was urged today to
aid in a movement for a comprehen'
sive system of reporting cases OF
sickness throughout the different
states, along the lines that deaths are
now reported. IL was declared that
much of the illness of today is need
less and that the first step in proven
ton must be accurate knowledge as
to the occurrence of sickness. The
Recommendation was made by DIT.
Louis l. Dublin, life insurance statis-
tician, of this city. A model law to
provide for such reports has been
prepared by the Conference of State
and Territorial Health authorities in
conjunction with the United States
Public Health service. An effort is
being made to interest large business
and industrial concerns in the move
ment, principally on the ground OF
the resulting economic benefit to
them. Besides, it is pointed out that
any reduction of economic loss will,
without additional effort, or expense,
bring concurrently a vast reduction
in social loss, Including physical suf-
fering. dependency, lack of education
and training and other results Of ILL.,
that lower the standard of fam
lily and community life.
Have Born Fruit.
THE life saving campaigns of the
last few decades have born fruit"
said DR.. Dublin in his recommended
ton. The death rate has been low.
cred and the average span of life
correspondingly heightened. Deaths
from certain causes, especially from
typhoid fever, smallpox . the infec-
tious diseases of childhood, and tub
erculosis have been reduced. The
amount of sickness, on the other
hand, has not been controlled to any
appreciate degree. There is still
too much sickness among US. In
deed, there are those who, with some
authority, maintain that illness has
actually increased in spite of all the
saving in mortality. The next TWEEN
ty years must, therefore. see our act
ivities in health work directed espe.
cially to the control of disease. If
we avail ourselves Of our presen,
knowledge OF sanitary science, we
can reduce the incidence of illness
fully as much as we have already cut
down our death rates.
Knowledge OF Prevalence.
The basis for any campaign
against sickness must be an accurate
knowledge of its prevalence Just
as the reduction of mortality is fur
thered by a complete registration Of
deaths and their causes, so our eff.
forts to reduce the frequency of d.
sease depend upon machinery for err
porting the cases of sickness, their
causes, and their duration, for such
group in the community. For this
purpose, it is not sufficient to know
only. as we do now. the number who
have died from any particular cause.
We must henceforth place our en-
phasis upon the cases Of sickness
themselves. They are socially more
important than deaths and our pro.
gramme must more and more prevent
their occurrence and effect their con
trol. The state must, therefore, in
the first instance, see that all pre.
Nentable diseases are recorded that
we may lay our foundation for eff.
clent sanitary administration.
t.s Register Disease.
Health departments have long re-
allied the Importance of registering
disease. At first they required the
reporting of the plaques such as
smallpox. yellow fever. cholera, etc,
Later, the list was extended to in.
clude the acute infections, especially
those OF childhood, like %diphtheria.
scarlet fever and measles. With the
development of the germ theory of
olsease, the reporting of tuberculosis
a included; first on a voluntary,
and later, on a compulsory basis, Fl.
Many, in some of the more advanced
states. certain non-infectious diseases,
snch as cancer, pellagra, and even a
lev of the occupational diseases,
nave been made reportable. At the
present time, nearly all states of the
union have laws requiring the report.
ms OF one or more of the preyent.
able diseases.
Control Of is Poor.
NO important aspect of our state
health work shows up to such moor
advantage as does the registration
and control Of the preventable di.
seases. We are here concerned with
conditions which are r%esDonsihle
from year to year for large economic
and socia' losses and We; we have
only the crudest machinery for check.
lng them. Professor Irving Fisher.
OF Yale. has estimated that about
three million people are seriously in
at any one time in the United States
q whom about half are sufferin.
from preventable causes The econ.
Onnfc losses from such Illness he de.
cMres to be no less than five hand
req million dollars annually in wages
anu an equal sum in doctors fees.
drugs and other necessary medical
accessories. These figures, he be-
Eeves. are conservative: but it is OBJ.
uoisly impossible to make any est.
mate which will approximate the
trnth I'm view of the total absence Of
reliable Information. In fact, there
are no records of illness in this rom.