The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-07-09
Teaching Health at The
 UniUersify of Alabama

pama every year. If these cases ay- craze only two weeks each, there gre So,000 months or nearly 1000 years of illness from this disease alone; an average of nearly 1000 people sick year In and year out from this disease. Forgetting for A time the suffering and pain and grief of those who are sick and of their relatives and friends, let us consider the cost in time and money and loss of productive power. More than half of these sick people arc or producing age. Four thousand producers on the idle list A large part Of this illness occurs during the erop-growing and harvesting season, when the loss of labor in the coun- try districts, where most of tha cases occur. Is felt most. keenly. Add doctors fees and the cost of medi- cine and the time of attendants, to say nothing of the loss of life and the expenses of funerals, and some Idea will be gained of the enormous economic burden this one disease places on the people of Alabama. Add 10 thls the burden of half million cases of hookworm infection, more or less malignant; sickness and death from typhoid fever, more prevalent in the rural south than elsewhere. and the south's due proportion of other preventable diseases Here is one reason at least for our compara. tive poverty in the midst of incom- parable natural resources, and for the fact that Alabama has less than one-third of her just share of the automobiles of the country and is unable to maintain her schools and other public institutions as some oth- CT states do.
 Obviously the remedy Is to apply the knowledge that science has placed at our disposal for tha pre- vention of this unnecessary sickness and inefficiency
 But before we can apply that knowiedge, 1t must become the pos session of a larger number of people. it must be made more democratic.
 This is one of the tasks of the department of hygiene in the uni versity.
 It is assumed that those who pass through the university will become leaders, whatever may be their walk in life, and If they Nhave an ade- quate understanding of our health problems of community and state. the full weight of their Influence as citizens will go toward the further enlightenment of those about them and the reduction of the enormous economic burden placed upon us by preventable diseases.
 Therefore, the department of by- giene addresses itself to two things. namely. the group of diseases that the boards of health take most ac- count of (the notifiable diseases). and the defects and deficiencies of the individual that are more or less correctable.
 Of the natifiable diseases those that cause most deaths and most in- efficiency are given most considera- tion. Malaria, with its 100000 cases year; hookworm, with which every fourth person Is infected; typhoid, with it's death rate almost where it was 20 years ago, except in the cities, of course; and tuberculosis, from which eight per cent of the people die-these are given special consideration. Every student who passes through the university should have an adequate working knowl- edge of them and of their far reach ing effects on the economic condi- tions of the state.
 Of the individual defects and de- ficiencies nutrition and elimination are given a prominent place. In childhood every fourth person has some defect in nutrition. People generally believe that it Is sort of natural condition to be thin or to be fat, and that the appetite is reliable guide as to what and how much one should eat. Errors like this are hard to uproot and much time Is needed. In 1920-21 the correction of defects of nutrition was begun in the uni versity. Reducing up and reducing down." as the students call it. At first 1t was not popular. But as soon as few had been nut in first