The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1919-07-11
Economic Loss From Preventable
Ailments Is Estimated at
Enormous Figure.
BASED ON STUDY IN ILLINOIS
Influenza Epidemic Responsible for
Economic Loss in Vital Assets of
Approximately 1000, 200, 900
Health Means Money.

New Iork.-EcOnomiC loss in this
country from preventable diseases ia
estimated by American Medicine at
S2,JOO,OOO,OUO q year. This conclusion
Is based on an elaborate study of the
subject 10y Illinois Health News, which
shows that in 1913 in Illinois alone ill
ness and death from such diseases en-
tailed Il loss of $24.67 for each man,
woman and child in the state. Although
the general death rate in Illinois was
at the low figure of 14.2 per 1000 Of
population, the loss from the prin-
cipal ~preventable diseases amounted
to Sl5,SS1 $50, or G.01 per cent of the
total property value of the state.
IF this ratio of per capita cost"
American Medicine says, were to
apply for the entire United States
the loss during 1918 would amount to
more than $2,500,000,0O0. The Illinois
figures, however, merely considered
the cost Of the following commune
cable diseases: Typhoid, malaria.
smallpox, measles, scarlet fever,
whooping cough, dlphtherla, mcnin-
gifts, poliomyelltis, tuberculosis and
pneumonia.
in computing the financial cost,
three items were involved Cd The cost
of funerals based at 500 for adults
and 500 for children; CD the value of
life lost at $4,000 for an adult and $500
for a child; CD the cost of care of
those who recover, including medical
service for adults.
utilizing the same figures for the
few above-named diseases in Il com
putation on the basis of the United
States mortality figures for 1916, the
death losses from these ten diseases
OpOliOmyelitiS not inCluded) amounted
to approximately $57O,OOO,OOO and the
losses due to medical care and wages
to approximately 81 ,01S,000.
"The recent epidemic Of influenza
involved at least ten million persons,
with a mortality Of approximately 400
0O0. Assuming that each case Of i'll
ness involved only $50 for medical
care, the cost would be $250,000,0O0.
Pestilence Adds Another Billion.
"InaSmuch as the mortality from in
tluenza involved approximately three
persons Of working age to one child,
one may consider the average loss by
death equivalent to $1,000, and the
funeral expenses at 500, giving thus
a total economic loss in vital assets Of
approximately 81, 600, 100000. These fig
ureS, large as they are, take no ac-
count of the losses in production due
to the pestilence, nor, indeed, of the
cost of labor turnover due to the NOR
tality of industrial workers.
These tremendous costs of com
municable diseases may be regarded
In part as an index of the economic
efficiency of communities. 1t certainly
does not reflect great interest or care
in the conservation Of the assets Of
the community TO note the astonishing
destruction of due to pre-
ventable communicable diseases.
1T is probably a shock to the con
s~ervative thinker about economic
w~astefulness to realize that the mum
Der of industrial accidents reported TO
the New York state industrial com
mission for the year 19l7-191S was
2S6,S71, q number larger than the total
casualties of our American army Oc-
cupied in the strenuous work Of con
Iuering a pitiless foe. 1t is of the ut
most significance that war, with all it's
atrocities, is probably responsible for
little greater disease and disability
during the period of greatest industrial
activity than occurred during the or
binary years of conditions rejecting
normal industrial activity.
Health Means Dollars and Cents.
Health must be estimated in terms
of dollars and cents, in terms of pro-
a e~plA