The log cabin Democrat., 1920-12-30
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 !. RECURRENCE OF THE FLU :: ! UNCERTAIN. .:
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Washington, Dec 30-"There is
 absolutely no way of definitely fore
 telling whether this winter will wit ness any recurrence of influenza in epidemic form," said Surgeon General II. S. Cumming of the U. $. public health service. "As result, however, of very careful analyses of the cpl
 demiology of influenza, especially as the result of intensive studies in homes where influenza occurred in
 1918 and 1919, it may be stated that
 an attack of influenza appears to con-
 fer definite immunity to subsequent
 attacks; an immunity lasting for sev-
 eral years. Inasmuch as the epidemic
 of 1918 and 1919 affected so very large
 proportion of the population, there
 would seem to be reasonable grounds
 for believing that even should flu be-
 come prevalent here and there, it
 would not assume the epidemic pro-
 portions of the past two years, nor
 would it rage in such severe form.
 '1t is unfortunate that the public
 becomes so intensely interested in
 spectacular epidemic outbreaks of disease and is so little moved by the daily occurrence of many preventable deaths in all parts of the country. Of the one and one-quarter million deaths
 occurring in the United States annual ly, as least 100000 could easily be prevented by the application of avail able medical knowledge For exam pie, one of the diseases which becomes prevalent about this time of the year is diphtheria. This disease is respon- sible for about 15,000 deaths in the United States annually. Practically every one of these deaths could be prevented, for not only have we an effective anti-toxin for treating the disease when 1t occurs, but what is still more important, we are now able | by means of a simple skin test to de- termine which children are susceptible i to diphtheria, and, this ascertained, | We can effectively immunize them so as to protect them against this disease
 'The 10000 or more deaths from typhoid fever that occur annually in 1 the United States could also be large ly prevented if communities every where would make certain that their water and milk supplies were pro- tected and if simple precautions were taken in homes where typhoid fever occurs. It is encouraging to know that small pox has been so well con- trolled that at present the average deaths from it in the United States number only 400 annually Never theless. these 400 deaths are entirely for vaccination has long | shown itself an effective means of control"
 In almost every community in the country the wastage in infant lives | is still enormous, especially when con .rasted with that in New Zealand, for example, where the death rate is only | 50 per thousand births in the first year of life as against 100 in the United States.
 Commenting on this, Surgeon Gen aral Cumming said: The expense of
 life saving through the prevention and control of disease by well-directed . health measures is very small indeed when contrasted with the saving ef- fected would strongly urge the peo- pie If this country to recognize the | fact that expenditures in this direction constitute the most profitable form of ! investment Effective measures of l health conservation constitute a most urgent need of this reconstruction period v