Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1915-07-15
A WELL-KNOwN FACT
TYPHOID FEVER.
Is Preventable---Its Causation- --Exacss
Heavy Oll---Recent Public
Health Bulletin.

-Four hundred thousand persons in
capacitated 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 preventahle disease.
A recent bulletin of the UnitedStates
Public Health Service entitled sTy-
phoid Feyer-Its Causation and Pre-
vention." states that within the past
ten years few of our communities hav-
ing rs many as two thousand persons
have remained free from this disease
for any period of twelve consecutive
months. In recent times the rate Of
its prevalence for the United States
as a whole has been from two to Eve
times as high as in some of the coun-
tries of Europe
In these European countries the ty-
phoid rate was formerly higher than
the present figures fer the United
States. Their reductions in the raw
ages OF the disease has 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 en-
tire states has shown a material de-
: crease in late years.
For the coutry, as a whole, accord.
ing to available figures, the rate has
been reduced about so per cent. in the
past forty years But the present rate
is about the same as that which pre-.
vailed in some Of the other advanced
nations OF the world thirty years ago
In other words, the United States is q
I 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 tc
I get the people OF the average self-gov.
I erning community to carry out these
measures to a reasonable extent are
oftentimes decidedly experimental in
character.
+ In many instances the cost of mod.
ern sanitary improvements has been
an obstacle in the way of typhoid pre-
! vention. II is often difficult to con-
vine ethe governing authorities that
money expended in the protection OF
the public health yields large divi-
bends In rural communities and small
municipalities another factor-the I'M
struction and cooperation of the indi-
vidual property owner--enters into
the problem. Here every home must
have its own method of sewage dis
posal, and in most cases its own water
supply The Public Health Service
bulletin above referred to deals in a
comprehensive way With the construc-
tion of wells and outhouses.
In recent years a specific method for
increasing individual resistance to ty-
phoid germs has been employed. This
is known as anti-tyjhoid moculation
or vaccination" This method has
been used extensively IN military or
CARNATIONS of the United States, and
! from the results obtained II appears
that inoculated persons are,upon equal
exposure to typhoid infection, less than
one-fouth as likely to develop the dis
ease as those who have not been moe
ulated and who have previously had
the disease. The average duration OF
protection given by incubation has
not been determined, but is supposed
to be about two years.
1t is pointed out, however, that the
protection given by anti-toxin inocula-
ton is relative. not absolute. and that
such incubation is not to be regarded
as a substitute for sanitation.