The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1917-01-11
PELLAGRA FOUND
TO Be INFECTIOUS
Investigation by Medical Com
mission Shows 1t Can Be
Controlled.
NOT DEPENDENT UPON Diet
Best Way to Combat the Disease Is
With Efficient Sewage System
Some important Discoveries
Are Made.


but it is not caused by an unbalanced
or inadequate diet, and the most effec-
tive means of combating it is by in
stalling efficient sewage disposal sys-
tens in the communities where it is
prevalent, says a report issued by the
commission of the Post Graduate Medi-
cal School and Hospital, that has been
conducting an extensive investigation
in South Carolina.
The Importance of these discoveries,
it was pointed out, can better be ap-
preciated when it is recognized that
more than 100000 persons in this coun-
try are known to be suffering from the
disease. There probably are many more
victims, as several of the states in
which it is prevalent are not in the
federal registration area, and the eX-
tent of the disease thus can only be
Appropriated.
The facts disclosed by a searching
inquiry and long continued observation
in Spartanburg county, South Carolina,
where scores of persons have died from
pellagra, prove conclusively, member
to the belief generally prevailing in
the North, the disease is infectious.
1t spreads through lack of proper
sewage facilities, and in the opinion of
the Investigators cannot be contracted
by persons merely because they do
not have a proper diet.
Three Years Investigation.
To prove the theory three years work
in Spartan Mills, an Industrial dis
trict in the city of Spartansburg, has
Just been completed. An efficient sew
age system was built. Thorough rec
OrdS of all cases were kept. That COM
munity, consisting of 1000 persons, was
regarded as one of the worst pellagra
fOci in South Carolina. Scores of
persons there until recently were at
tackled by the disease each year.
The result of seWering the cOmmu-
nifty is that although numerous old
cases still were present this year, no
one living within the severed district
contracted the disease in the last II
months, with a single exception.
The only new victim was woman
on the extreme edge of the community,
just across the street from a house
with surface drainage in which
chronic pellagra sufferer lived. From
the worst type of pellagra focus the
district has been changed to a cOmmu-
nifty in which the disease no longer
spreads.
The reduction in the number of
cases of the disease in Spartan Mills
has impressed the owners of another
large mill in the county, who have
begun an active fight on the epidemic
in their community by installing an eff
ficient disposal system.
The commission has not discovered
the cause of pellagra, but asserts that
until scientific research reveals what
produces the disease, which caused
more deaths in South Carolina in the
first half of 1915 than any other NAL
ady, the most advisable course to take
is to sewer towns where it prevails
and thus save the health and lives of
many persons who otherwise might
contract it.
Maize Not Responsible.
Early in its investigation the commits
sion decided that the use of maize as
a food could not be regarded as the
essential cause of pellagra, nor could
any particular element of the diet be
designated logically as the cause.
This conclusion upset the belief that
persons Subsisting chiefly on maize
contracted the disease as u result of
the prepOnderance of that food in their
diet, a theory which has been popular
in Italy, and to which the American
public has chung tenaciously.
1t inaugurated Il hygienic-dietetic
treatment of many patients. The suf-
fererS were brought to the Post Gradu-
ate hospital, where they were treated
by rest, careful nursing and a proper
diet. The results of this regime proved
excellent. The patients simply got
well. There was no medication. The
treatment was similar to that given
To tuberculOus patients.
To its own satisfaction, ut least, the
commission diSproved early the theory
that the disease is due to the bite of
the buffalo gnat, more commonly
known as the black fly, and the by
pothesis that it is caused by the pres
ence of certain minerals in drinking
water.
Our studies" one of the inveStiga-
tors said, have proved pellagra is in
fictitious. Most of the new cases
observed arose in the immediate vi
cinity of n pre-existing pellagra suf-
ferer. For the first time the signifi-
canoe of these facts in respect to the
way in which pellagra spreads has
been pointed out"
The commission, which began its
work in 1912, interested several
branches of the federal government in
the investigation of this disease, and
was instrumental in obtaining CON
gressiOnal action TO support the quite
separate and independent special work
of the public health service on this
problem.