The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-01-09
CONNECTICUT'S
 HEALTH FIGURE
 FOR ONE YEAR

By T. Eben Reets. M D., Director Bureau of Preventable Diseases)
 Twenty million dollars a year Is conservative estimate of the economic loss to Connecticut through preventa- ble death and disease alone These figures represent an actual and largely preventabae loss to the state, but they do not show the higher loss, the senti- mental losss which is inneasurable.
 Every healthy life has a definite value which may be expressed in dol- lars and csntz But we do not like to think of human life in terms of money, so few of our citizens have appreciated how great this economic loss is If fire and other accidents caused property loss of comparable amount, no effort or expense would be spared In providing means to pre- vent it. But we are apatheno in our attitude toward prsventabde diease and unt1me1y death We are so ac- customed to them that many of us still think they are naf-7ra1 and in- evitalble- Requests for appropriations to protect the public health are re garded with scepticism and suspicion Taxpayers are generally so busy watching the pennies which might roll out that they overlook the mil lions in health and wealth which might be kept in-
 Twenty thoalsand people in Conn ect- 1cut are afncted with tuberculosis About 1700 of OUT people die each year from this diease- The state tu- berculosis commission though handi- capped by rddiruaousay inadequate support, is making notable progress in its effort to combat the great white plague
 Twelve hundred of our people die each year of cancer, a disease which is often curabls in It's eariy stages But the state has made no provision for fighting this disease
 During the year. just past about 250 children died in this s4ate of dfph- therda, a disease xpE15ch science has afo- soduteIy conquered For less than the amount of the economic loss which these child deaths represent IL would be possible to iznrnunize every per son in Connecticut who is susceptible to diphthRria- But thr hzch athorizes the state department of health to purchase and distribute varcines and antitoxn also provides that the disr1bution shall be limited to people upOm wRaozn payment would be a financial haEs9RfH7p.
 In T9HS nearHy 4e9@ infants under one year of age died i'm Connecticut- Pre- natal care of the mothers and the pruper feed1mg of tho fzfa1zss would have red1cea tRalB mortality by falf- IF the state had gSN visiting nurses to instruct mothers and prospective mothers, thousands of babies would be sawed eae7n year We ncw have but 175 general visiting nurses and of these all but B are located in Fair fegds Hartford and New Haven coun- ties.
 The great war revealed the value of good health as nothing else ever did The draft showed what a large percentage of us arc unfit when the call comes It was a shock to learn that SS per cent of the young men of the country were returned to their homes as physically r~"-' for service but the discovery emphasized the general need for a much broader vis- ion in dealing with matters related to public health
 Probably hah the men rejected in the draft would have been fit for service, ii, In their schooldays, they had received proper treatment for de fects which adequata medical 1nspec- tion in the schools would have re- vea1ed-
 In an examination of 100000 school children it was found that the children were afflicted with various defects in the following percentages Teeth 50 per cent; vision, 25 per cent; adnoids, and enlarged tonsils, 30 per cent; nal nutrition, 25 per cent; orthopedtc de- fects, per cent; tuberculosis, per cent. heart weakness per cent
 At the beginning of the new year it seems to me that the greatest need in public health work is a. general educational campaign It is incon- cetvalbae that the state should go on year after year piling up a huge eco
 lo1nic loss when so much can be
 one to prevent it