The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-08-04
No Ground for Panic.

Rather frantic attempts are being
made to counteract the statements
coming from Washington that pella-
gra is so widespread in the south that
dire distress and death must imme-
diately follow unless something is
done to put an end to the rava ges of
the disease. OF course, a statement
by seeming authority from the capital
that a disease so dangerous as pella-
gra exists very generally in the south
carries with it some weight and will.
if not explained, cause great deal
of uneasiness and distress.
The Herald has received kilograms
asking assistance in combating the
impression gained from the statement
as to the prevalence of pellagra i'm the
south, emanating from Washington,
fathered, it is said, by the president
himself. The writer's of the kilograms
want to make it known that Florida
should not be considered in the, ter
ritory in which, as it is claimed, pei
legra has assumed such dimensions
that almost the whole people are now
threatened.
In the first place, medical authority
asserts that pellagra is not contagious.
1t is a disease which, as investigation
by the United States Public Health
Service clearly shows, is due entirely
to a continued lack for long periods
of time of the necessary variety in
the daily diet. No single article of
food can be charged with being the
bearer of the dread disease. 1t is the
continued use, day after day, year
after year, of the same kind of food,
coupled with other conditions that
makes pellagra possible.
In the second place, there is very
little pellagra in Florida. The state
board of health gives out the state
ment that in the year 1917, there were
PIG deaths from this disease. In 1913
there were 1874 deaths, in 1919 there
were 113 deaths, in 1920 there were Ill
deaths and for the first six months of
the present year there were only 46,
or less than one hundred for the en-
tire year, showing that the health au-
thorities of Florida are well aware OF
the prevailing conditions and are sue
cessfully combating the disease. The
steady decrease in deaths shows also
that the standard of living in sections
of Florida is improving and that the
people are living better and have
learned to vary their diet.
AS showing the position that pella-
gra stands with other diseases in this
state, of the twenty-three principal
causes of death in 1920. pellagra stands
sixteenth down the list. OF every
hundred thousand people in Florida
last year 1914 died of organic heart
trouble; 1887 of tuberculosis; 93.1 of
apoplexy and paralysis; 1871 of influ-
enza; S5.S of pneumonia; 79.1 Of
Bright's disease; III by accident; 70
early infancy; 50.7 of cancer; 1913 of
diarrhea, under two years of age; SO
of malaria; 2S.S by homicide; 22.3 of
diarrhoea, over two years of age: 14.3
of typhoid fever; IL of dysentery; 11.3
OF pellagra-
While the disease is painful and
disgusting in its symptoms and finally
leads to melancholia, insanity and
death, the treatment is simple and
consists in the use of a more varied
diet. including milk, eggs, fish, meat
and vegetables.
In view of the actual state of affairs
in Florida, a condition that shows that
the disease is being conquered and
that it is not at all contagious. there
is not the slightest ground for panic
over the statement which came from
Washington and which has so agitat-
ed some of the communities in this