Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1915-07-12
TYPHOID PREvENTABLE.


-Four hundred thousand persons in
capaoitated, and thirty thousand lives
lost-this is the heavy toll exacted in
the United States each year by the
soourge of typhoid fever. And ty-
phoid fever is a preyentable diseased
A recent bulletin of the United
States public health service entitled
Typhoid Fever-Its Causation and
Prevention, states that within the
past 10 years few of our communities
having as many as 1000 persons have
remained free from this disease for
any period Of u consecutive months
In recent times the rate of it's preva-
lence for the United States as a whole
has been from two to five times as
high as in some Of the countries of
Europe, In these European countries
the typhoid rate was formerly higher
than the present figures for the Unit
ed States. Their great reductions in
the ravages of the disease have been
brought about by improvements in
sanitary conditions
In many American cities there has
occurred within the last % years a
considerable reduction of typhoid fe-
yer. Due in large part to improved
sanitary conditions il the cities, the
typhoid rate for some entire states
has shown a material decrease. For
the country as a whole. according to
available figures. the rate has been
reduced about 80 per cent in the past
40 years, But the present rate is
about the same as that which prevail
ed in some of the other advanced ma
tons Of the world 80 years ago. In
other words, the United States is
generation behind the times in respect
to the reduction of its typhoid rate.
Practical and efficient measures for.
the prevention Of typhoid fever are
definitely known, but the efforts to get
the people of the average self govern
ing community to carry out these
measures to 8 reasonable extent are
oftentimes decidedly experimental i'm
character. In many instances the
cost of modern sanitary improvements
has been an obstacle in the way Of
typhoid prevention. X is often diff
cult to convince the governing author
tiles that money expended in the pro
lection Of the public health yields
large dividends
In rural communities and small
municipalities another factor-the in
structiou and cooperation Of the in
dividual property owuer-euters into
the problem, Here every home must
have its own method of sewage dis
posal, and in most cases its own wa
ter supply. The public health service
bulletin above referred TO deals in q
comprehensive way with the construc-
ton OF wells and outhouses
In recent years 4 specific method
for increasing individual resistance to
typhoid germs has been employed.
This IS known as anti-typhoid inocu- /
1ation or vaccination" This method
has been used extensively in military
organizations of the United States. /
and from the results obtained it aD-
pears that the inocuIated persons are,
upon equal exposure TO typhoid infec- /
ton. less than one-fourth as likely
TO develop the disease as those who
have not been inoculated and who
have previously had the disease. The
average duration Of protection given |
by the incubation has not been de-
termined, but is supposed to be about
two years.
It IS pointed out, however, that the
protection given by anti-typhoid inoc- !
ulation is relative. not absolute, and
that such incubation IS not TO be re-
garded as q substitute for sanitation.