Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1915-07-22
TYPHOID FEVER
ISPREVENTABLE,
AMERICA IS BEHIND TIMES IN
HOLDING BACK DISEASE
SAYS WRITER.

Washington, July 16.-Four hun
dred thousand persons incapacited and
thirty thousand lives lost-this is the
heavy toll exacted in the United States
each year by the scourge of typhoid
fever. And typhoid fever is a pre-
ventable disease!
A recent bulletin of the United
States public health service entitled
"Typhoid Fever-Its Causation and
Prevention" states that within the
past ten years few of our communities.
having as many as two thousand per-
sons have remained free from this.
disease for any period of twelve con-
secutive months. In recent times the
rate of it's prevalence for the United
States as whole has been from two
to five times as high as in some OF
the countries of Europe. In these Eu-
ropean countries the typhoid rate was
formerly higher than the present fig
ures for the United 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 twenty years
a considerable reduction of typhoid
fever. Due in large part to improved
sanitary conditions in the cities, the
typhoid rate for some entire states
has shown material decrease. For
the country as whole, according to
available figures, the rate has been,
reduced about so per cent in the past
40 years. But the present rate is about
the same as that which prevailed in
some of the other advanced nations
of the world 30 years ago. In other
words the United States is genera
tion behind the times, in respect to,
the reduction of its typhoid rate.
Practical and efficien 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 reasonable extent are
oftentimes decidedly experimental in
character. In many instances the cost
of modern sanitary improvements has
been an obstacle in the way of typhoid
prevention. 1t is often difficult to con-
vince the governing authorities that
money expended in the protection Of
public health yields large dividends.
In rural communities and small
municipalities another factor-the in
struction and cooperation of the in
dwividual property owner-enters into
the problem. Here every home must
have it's own method of sewerage dis
posal, and in most cases it's own wa
ter supply. The public health service
bulletin above referred to deals in a
comprehensive way with the construc-
ton of wells and outhouses.
In recent years specific method
for increasing Individual resistance to
typhoid germs has been employed.
This is known as antityphoid inocula-
ton or vaccination" This method
has been used extensively in military
organizations of the United States,
and from the results obtained it ap-
pears that inoculated persons are,
upon equal exposure to typhoid infec-
ton, less than onc-fourth as likely to
develop the diseases as those who have
not be en- inoculated and who have
previously had the disease. The aver
age duration of protection given by
incubation has not been determined,
but it is supposed to be about two
years.
& It is pointed out, however, that the
protection given by antityphoid inoc-
ulation is relative, not absolulet, adm
that such incubation is not to be re-
garded as a substitute for sanitation.