The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-06-03
INDIFFERENCE OF
 CITY COMMISSION
 SCORED BY LOWERY
Former Health Officer Says High Mortality Rate From Typhoid Is "Useless
 and Disgraceful"

Claiming a lack of appreciation on
 the part of the city commissioners as
 to the gravity of the typhoid fever sit
 uation in Birmingham, Dr. J. NJ Low
 cry, assistant health officer recently resigned, has issued a formal state Iment, giving his views on the matter. lDr. Lowery states the typhoid fever conditions are such as to cause deep concern and contends that the situation could be improved if the authorities would take action. He states the high
 mortality for typhoid fever Is most useless, and inexcusable and most dis graceful" pr. Lowery's statement fol- lows
 ! T wish to say at the outset that l have absolutely no personal feeling in this matter. I have no grudge against any one, and no scores to set tie. I have for years been deeply in- terested in the health affairs of the city, and have always deplored the high typhoid incidence and mortality rates, because of all communicable dis eases typhoid fever is the most use- less and inexcusable and most dis graceful I use the term disgracefu1 Qcllb Staleiy, bGCduS6 " ypnOlu lever (outside the laboratory can only be gotten by getting into ones mouth the offal of some human being who has, or has had the disease. Hence the ax-
 iom that the measure of typhoid in any given community is the measure of filth in that community
 We have had so much typhoid fever
 in Birmingham for so long that we have grown accustomed to it, just as
 the people in the Mississippi delta have become accustomed and indifferent to malarial fever. This was forcibly dem onstrated in recent conference with the commissioners, when after pointing out the fact that we had $50 cases of the disease in Birmingham last year,
 and that If certain things were not done that we had every right to expect as mortality of 10 per cent Ga loss of S5 human Hves) the commission had to re- fer the matter to the city attorney for an opinion as to whether such an ex- penditure of money could be consid-
 cred as an emergency expenditure. QUESTION OF SANITATION "The question of the disposal of hu-
 man waste is at least 75 per cent of the whole question of sanitation, so that if every closet in the city 'of Br- mingham could be connected to the san lLdTy sewers the typnOlu 1nCluenCe would drop like a shot almost to the vanishing point. for the wells and springs could not be contaminated and there would remain only those few cases caused by contamination of food (milk, etc.) by typhoid carriers that is, people who had had the disease and
 gotten we'll of it, bur Sho still harbored the germs of the disease. About three per cent of all cases of the disease leave the victim in this unfortunate condition, but if these cases are then followed up, and treated until they are no longer infectious, the carriers in the community will gradually be re- duced to such extent that typhiod would be as rare as infantile paraly- sis
 Tt is, however impossible to connect all closets in this manner, for we haven't the sewers. So the next best thing, our only substitute in fact, is the so-callei
 sanitary dry closet, almost any form of which is safe and efficient if it receives the proper care. By proper care IS meant that the closet after being prop erly constructed, must contain a water tight receptacle. properly placed, ana that the box or seat containing this re- ceptacle, must be fly tight, and scavenser service must be rendered at least once
 each week.