The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-08-08
Government Expert Recom- mends Annual Budget of S30,870 for City and
 County CONSTRUCTION OF TWO HOSPITALS SUGGESTED Report Says City and County Should Be Divided Into Districts--Entire Health Plan Outlined at Medi-
 cal Society Meeting

Recommending that an annual budget of $3O.s70 be expended on unified pub lie health system for Birmingham and Jefferson county, Dr. Carroll Fox of the United States public health service last night read to the Jefferson County Med teal society his unofficial report to the authorities in Washington on conditions in Birmingham and Jefferson county Dr. Fox refused to give a copy of his report to representative of The Age-Herald, saying 1t was unofficial. He said, how ever, a copy of his recommendations would be given to Dr. T. D. Parke, chair man of the board of health. and that he would be at liberty to give them to the press.
 Dr. Fox recommends that full time health officer be employed, and that he have two assistants who shall also be full time officials The recommendation is that a salary of not less than $3500 per year be paid to the health officer and s2500 be paid his assistant in Bir- mingham and 5000 to his assistant in the county. The recommendations provide that Birmingham be given the services of the first assistant officer. with full staff of nurses and sanitary inspectors, and that he be given full power to put into effect sanitary and health measures within the city
 The duties of the health officer would be those of an executive and the two assistants would devote their entire time to field work. The government health expert recommends that not less than five efficient nurses for each district be employed to be used in the county as the health officer might see fit, and that the county, exclusive of Birmingham and Bessemer, be divided into five districts, each district to be under the direct charge of a sanitary inspector, in order that in- divdual cases might be properly at- tended to.
 Dr. Fox also recommends the construc- ton of a hospital or sanatorium for tuber- cular patients, with capacity of not less than 30 beds. He further recommends a hospital exclusively for communicable diseases, excepting tuberculosis and ty- phoid fever, the latter hospital to have capacity of not less than 50 beds. He said the requirements in foreign lands would be ITO beds for a city the size of Birmingham, but he thought 50 beds would be sufficient here
 Dr. Fox explained that his recommen- dation of a budget of S30,S70 annually would be sufficient to maintain the health service in the proper manner. This is the very minimum for which it could be properly handled" he said. He explained also that the amount named represented but three per cent of the revenue of the county.
 He recommends that the city council of Bessemer be asked to set aside s5000 annually for the maintenance of public health service, and said that a man trained in sanitary science could properly handle the situation there; that phy- sician would not be necessary.
 Dr. Fox recommends that the city lab oratories be turned over to the county and greatly enlarged by the county; the retention of the city bacteriologist at a salary of not less than $2100 a year; the proper enforcement of the city ordinances regarding garbage disposal; removal of garbage and rubbish from all premises not less than twice week by city wagons; the proper incineration of all garbage and the use of the rubbish for filling breeding places of mosquitoes, etc; the pasteurzation of all milk sold in Bir- mingham under the direction of the health authorities; the resumption of bac- teriological examination of milk and dairy supplies, etc.
 Dr. Fox in his report scores the con- dition of rural sanitation in the county on several counts. He said. with the ex- ception of the camps of the Tennessee Coal. Iron and Railroad company, the conditions in the county were extreme ly bad. He complimented the sanitation of the Tennessee company camps.
 He also scored the lack of reports on deaths and births, saying Birmingham's and Jefferson countys death rate, for given disease could be materially lowered by the proper report of all cases of such disease. He cited figures to show that not nearly all cases of typhoid fever were reported; that comparatively few cass of scarlet fever and diphthera were re- ported, and that not nearly all the tuber culosis ca ses were reported. He said thls condition should not obtain and recom- mended that steps be taken to prevent occurrences of 1t in the future. He scored saying it was 107 deaths per 1000 for the last l2 months period. This he said, was entirely too high and that the ma jority of the deaths could have been prevented.
 Dr. Fox recommended that the various nurses now employed by several chari- table organizations of the city and county be placed under the supervision of the proposed public health system and that they work under the direction of the