Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1926-05-13
ANIMAL REPORT OF THE Dfs
TfsICT HEALTH COMMISSION
ER on MORGAN COUNTY

Ity, 1 respectfully submit the fol-
flowing report for the year 1925:
The budget, prepared by the dis
trlct board of health and approved
by the budget commission, was the
same as for the preceding year !.
Health Commissioners salary, ST.
800. All expenses, $500.
The state paid one-half of the
health commissioners salary, leav-
ing $3.50 to be paid by the county.
OF the $500 appropriated for all
Iexpenses, the sum of s374.52 was
actually spent
So the health administration cost
the taxpayers of Morgan county
1880, plus s374.52 or $1,12452:
or $308 a day.
| Was it worth it?
Well, let's see.
/ All binth certificates and all death
certificates now come from the reg
istrars to the health commissioner;
the registrars keep records for their
respective districts; the health COM
missioner keeps the record for the
whole county; and then he sends all
the certificates, after he has salts
fed himself that they are correct,
to the state department of health,
where the record for the whole state
is kept. The law requires that every
birth and every death be registered
and recorded.
The health commissioners records
for 1925 show that that there were
249 births in the county-126 males.
1913 females.
There were 237 deaths from all
causes, counting the stillborn-115
males. 122 females.
Twelve more births than deaths.
The record shows the following,
as to cause of death: Influenza, 8;
stillborn, 5; heart disease, in var
ious forms, 81; Bright's disease, 8;
accidental injury, /; pneumonia,
i20; tuberculosis, %; hardening of
arteries, IA; meningitis, non-con-
tagious. 5; apoplexy, 80; cancer, %;
whooping cough, /; diabetes, 2;
gangrene, 3: peritonitis, I; goitre,
IL; drowning, accidental, 1; disease
of liver. L; Hodgkin's disease, /;
hydrocephalus /; malarial fever, l;
accidental burns, 1.
Not a death from dread diphther-
ia; not death from treacherous
scarlet fever; not death from
loathsome smallpox; not death
from dark typhoid; only one
death from whooping cough, mere
babe! OF the deaths from tubercu-
losis, only seven belong properly to
the county; the other 16 were pa
sent there in advanced stages of the
disease, most of them, and beyond
AID Are we gaining or losing in
our earnest fight against communi-
cable diseases? Are We setting the
worth of the small amount of mon
| ey we are expending?
True, in this county, we do not
exercise much control over measles,
whooping cough, chickenpox, in
auenza, mumps, ETC., but the only
reason we do not do So is that we
can not command the money to en-
ploy necessary help. The health
commissioner has no assistants, no
nurse, no clerk, no salaried deputies,
no sanitary officers. He has every
thing to do himself, from quaran-
timing smallpox to the looking after
the burial Of dead sheep.
The average age at death, in 1925,
was SIS years.
L-
one year of age.
Forty-nine persons died at the ad-
vanced aged of 80 or more years;
and nine died at the extraordinary
age of 80 or over.
The number of deaths per thou
sand of population was about 16.
Despite the weather mans will
fulness and vagaries, old Morgan
county is a pretty healthful place of
residence.
1t is the law of the state that all
cases of communicable disease, of
whatever character, whether con-
tagious or infectious, shall be
promptly reported to the district
health commissioner. The duty of
reporting these diseases does not
rest upon physicians alone; it falls
upon nurses, teachers, parents, guar
dians and landlords, as well as upon
doctors. The health commissioner
desires to commend the medical
men of the county, for the prompti-
tude with which they report all
quarantinable diseases; but he can
not commend some of them for
their laxity in reporting diseases
for record purposes. Every case of |
communicable disease should be |
promptly reported; the state and |
national departments of health need |
these reports for record purposes, |
for their information and guidance !
in working out measures for the |
control of epidemics and bettering
general conditions.
Here is list of the communicable
diseases reported, or found by the
health commissioner himself, during
1925:
Mumps, 167 cases; scarlet fever,
II; influenza, 43; pneumonia, 16;
IS; syphilis, 6; erysip-
elias, 8; chickenpox, q; measles, 2;
cough, 25; smallpox, /;