The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1915-03-17
CIVIC LEAGUE REPORT.
Annual Report OF the City Nurse for
the Seventh Year. Ending February

LIST.
February the first marks the end OF
the seventh year Of the Civic League
nurse work. II is with pleasure that
the committee in charge OF it is able
TO report that the work has gone OF
! uninterruptcdly for the past twelve
months. Miss AntOn!a Gibson r. N,
Of Sumter, continues TO hold the po-
, sition Of city nurse, and has been con-
tinuously at her post except two
weeks vacation granted her in mid.
summer and two days in the fall al
ways allowed her to attend the State
! Graduate Nurses Association. She
reports for the year:
Number Of patients, 200.
Number of visits, 2,763.
Number Of births, II.
! Number Of deaths, s.
Number of tubercular patients, 10.
Number OF tubercular deaths, s.
These 2,7G3 visits paid by our nurse
to the homes Of the INDECENT are an
asset to our community which we
cannot value in money and which
Outweighs many times over the
$964.51 which it has cost u.s. She
goes into these homes not only as q
specialist to give the benefit of her
training, but as a friend whose NOR
al influence is great, as a teacher of
sanitation and right living and as a
counselor to be relied on. Civic clubs
often contend that district nursing is
philanthropy and without the scope of
civic endeavor; but this contention is
wrong for district nursing is the con-
scrvation Of human life, it tends to-
wards the preservation of the health
Of the community, fighting not only
teaching prevention of it. What
philanthropy there is in the scheme
is only a by-product, and improve
ment of living conditions the main
object sought after.
The report OH typhoid fever cases
for the year is distressing, showing s
cases from February l, 1914 to Feb
ruary l, 1915, while for the same pc.
riod last year there We're but .. Sum-
ter. however, was not responsible for
all these cases. only three were con-
tracted in the city, the five others
were brought here ill from other
places. In two instances epidemics
were threatened from cases. contract
ed elsewhere and only hard work
and constant care on the part OF the
city nurse with the aid of the city
health department averted them. One
was a mother and baby who were
brought here i'll from Augusta and
visited in locality in town where
lack of sewerage made their pres
ence q menace to the neighb6rhood;
the other little girl who contracted
: the disease in the country and was
brought back to home near the cit,
; water works which was without sew.
\
for the three cases contracted local
ly; the use Of bottled goods shipped
here from other points has been sug.
gested as a possible cause.
.s The nurse further reports that NOR.
tality among babies is greater where
they are fed on condensed milk. only
one not fed on it dying this year.
The death rate among the tubercu-
lar patients continues high as the ne
groes conceal having the disease until
1t Is too late TO do more than make
their end comfortable. The white
patients are much better about re-
porting their trouble, all the cases
among them are known, it is thought
and so cures are effected. 1t is graft
flying to report the progress of the
case for which the assistance of the
public was asked in the fall. The pa
tient, young man, was having high
temperature, eXpectorating freely and
having night sweats. Now he has
none of these symptoms and has ap-
parently been cured by the use of
tuberculin which was bought with
funds from the Anti-Tuberculosis AS
sociation. He is regaining his strength
and hopes very shortly to go to work.
Very much of the charity of the
town is done through the nurse.