The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1932-01-14
DID YOU KNOW THAT
BY STATE HEALTH DOCTOR
DIR. r. H. Riley Asks a Number
of Questions on Health

OF questions on healCn
DR.. R. H. Riley, director of the
Maryland State Department of Health
asks: Did you know that
Over $4,000 cases of communicable
diseases were reported in Maryland in
1931-26,OOO to the State Department
of Health from the counties, and
$4,000 to the Baltimore City Depart
ment of Health; that ...~,e,.; e.. .
This was marked increase. over
the number reported in 1880, and that
the increase was largely due to. out
breaks of measles and influenza, dur
ing the first half of 1881; that
Certain diseases are called COM
municable because they spread from
person to person., or are contracted in
handling or eating contaminated food;
from contaminated water; through the
bites of insects, or from animals;
that
There are over 2,4Q0 physicians
practicing in Maryland-800 in the
counties and 1000 in Baltimore City;
that the former report cases of COM
municable disease they attend or that
are brought to their attention, to the
county health officer, or directly to
the State Department of Health; that
the physicians in Baltimore City make
similar reports to the Baltimore De.
partment of Health; that ..
The reason physicians are required
to make these reports is in order that
the health departments may know
what diseases are occurring and
where, so that measures for their
control may be gotten under way,
promptly; that .
The reportable diseases include few
ers, such as typhoid, typhus, undulant
or. Malta fever; the so-called chill.
dren's diseases-measles, mumps,
whooping cough; infantile paralysis;
tuberculosis; all forms of pneumonia;
diarrhea and dysentery; the venereal
diseases; that altogether there are be-
tween fifty and sixty Of these, 'notifi-
able. diseases; that
The director of the Department Of
Health in each State reports the num-
Der and kind of communicable diseases
that occur in his State to the Surgeon
General of the U. S. Public Health
Service in Washington; that
Just as the Weather Bureau sends
out warnings of weather conditions
and of threatened storms, SO the U. S.
Public Health Service sends to all city
and State health officers, each week,
for their information and guidance,
in communicable disease control, a re-
port of communicable disease preva-
lence throughout the country; that
International bureaus for the ex-
change of information in regard to
the occurrence of communicable dis
eases, have been established at STRAIT
egic points and form network link
ing together the entire civilized world;
that
Washington is the headquarters for
the Pen American Sanitary Bureau
which acts as clearing house for the
Western hemisphere; the Internation-
al Office of Public Hygiene, which is in
touch with the health activities of
forty nations, is in Paris; the head
quarters of the Health Section Of the
League of Nations are at Geneva, in
Switzerland, with the Far Eastern
branch away off at Singapore, from
which news is broadcast every day of
quarantinable diseases that occur in
the Orient; and finally, did you real
ize that
This tremendously important SER
vice to humanity really hinges upon
the cooperation of practicing physi-
clans and the promptness with which
they report the occurrence of COM
municable sickness to the Depart
ments of Health?
"The Maryland State Department
of HEALTH" DIR. Riley said, "has the
ready cooperation Of the physicians in
this State in all activities for the
control of communicable diseases, and
it has great appreciation Of the SER
vices they render" ~