New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1915-07-24
PELLAGRA.

PelIagra is not a communicate
disease according to the verde
of the Louisiana State Board O.
Health, and the United States Ma
rine Hospital Service takes the
same stand. In spite of this
however, there are many physi
clans who believe that the disease
is either contagious or infectious
and treat the situation in accord
ance. The Convention in New
Orleans Oh the 18th and 10th inst
at the request Of the State Board
Of Health, and attended by near
ly one hundred of Louisiana s
health officers and other physi-
clans, representing forty parish
es, disclosed the fact that as yet,
all physicians are not in accord
as to cause, transmission and
cure. At times the arguments on
the question waxed warm, and a
great deal Of interest was taken
by all in attendance. The repre-
sentatives of the United States
Public Health Service, however,
are as one in declaring the dis
ease not transmissible.
Pellagra is disease which
manifests itself by disturbances in
the digestive tract and nervous
system, and by changes in the
skin. ''It is disease of many
symptoms and many variations.
1t seems cured, and yet recurs.
1t spreads, and is not contagious.
No disease is so plain as Pellagra
in the early Spring, and no dis
ease so obscure in the same
patient in mid-winter; a slight in
digestion may introduce the at
tack, and the case may be so light
in systemic effect that a month
later no apparent trace remains. -
The susceptibility to the disease
seems to be the same as that of
any other; any condition prodUc-
ing a lessening resistance of the
organism, alcoholism, venereal
diseases, and chronic malaria may
be considered as a predisposino
factor. The disease appears in
children, and those suffering of
ricketts,, malaria, chlorosis, and
other weakening conditions are
more predisposed. 1T cannot be
considered hereditary, from what
we have been able to learn, and
the most important pre-dispoSino
factor seems to be the lessening
resistance produced by an INSULT
cient diet.
While the cause Of the disease
is not known positively, it is rec
ognized that those fed on well
balanced and varied diet do not
contract it. Invariably those who
suffer are poorly nourished and
have been on restricted diet
particularly corn and it's pro-
ducts. and especially a poor quail
ity of corn. DR.. Jos. Goldberger,
of the United States Public Health
Service, contends that the dis
ease is dependent on some yet
undetermined fault in a diet in
which the animal or leguminous
protein component is dis-propor-
tiQnately small and the non-leg- |.
luminous vegetable component dis
proportionately large. The
wrong kind of food, food that
does not contain the right things
to help a person in good health.
is no doubt the factor or one of
the factors in it's causation.
The disease has been known to
exist in this country, according
to DR.. Goldberger, for about forty
years. 1t was then found in
Texas somewhere. Since 1906 or
Ehereabouts, the disease was rec /
(gnized in several states and ex-
sept for few isolated cases, it :
vas not generally known in the
United States before that date. ]
But since then. it has been found +,
n almost every state in the +
Union. and increasing rather rap +
Oily in the Southern States. 1t
S estimated that there are about T
10000 eases in the United States ,
t the present time. 1t is COM +