The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1935-06-13
MARYLAND COMMUNITY
SANITATION PROGRAM
Sponsored By State Department
and U. S. Public Health Service

The community sanitation program
that is now being conducted through
out Maryland is sponsored by the To-
cal, State and Federal Health author
tiles, for the purpose of eliminating
the grossly insanitary open-surface
privies that are now so prevalent in
every county in Maryland, and replac-
ing these with approved sanitary pit
buildings.
These sanitary privies are construct
ed in accordance with plans and spec
ifcations furnished by the U. S. Pub
lie Health Service, approved by the
Sanitary Engineering Bureau of the
Maryland State Department of Health
and are being erected by trained and
properly supervised workers. The ap-
proved buildings are constructed in
such a manner that flies, insects, rats
or small domestic animals cannot gain
access to the waste material and they
are practically oderless.
Improper disposal of excreta is a
grave health hazard, as it fosters the
continuance and spread of many dis
eases; for example, typhoid, dysen-
terry, hook worm, etc. To support this
statement the following excerpts from
the U. S. Public Health Service Bulle-
tin No. 108, 1888, are offered:
Health Hazards of Insanitary Disposal
of EXcreta
Certain diseases, such as typhoid
fever, hook worm and the dysenteries,
are transmitted by the body excretions
of persons suffering from the dis
ease, and by carriers. With the ex-
ception of hookworm disease, the in
fictitious agent is the living germ of
the disease. A carrier is an apparently
healthy person whose excreta contains
the living germs of the disease. He
may be person who previously has
had the disease, or one who has never
been known to have sufferd from it.
Other persons can become infected
only by taking the live germ of the dis
ease into the body through the mouth,
usually in contaminated water, milk
or other food. Thus, repulsive as the
thought may be, any one who con-
tracts typhoid fever or dysentery &C
tually has taken into his mouth a mi
mute quantity of the body excretion of
another person.
Since typhoid fever and the dysen-
teries are transmitted by infected ex-
creta, all of these diseases could be
practically eradicated if all human
excreta were disposed of, that the ex-
creta of diseased persons and carriers
could not be taken into the mouth by
other persons.
The most common routes of trans
mission of the infection of excreta-
borne diseases are (1) Water; ~
Milk; (3) Food; az Flies; (5) Per-
sonal contact.
The Water Route
The most spectacular reductions in
typhoid fever, diarrhea and dysen-
terry have been made through purifca-
tion of public water supplies and the
protection of water supply sources.
Since disease due to a contaminated
public water supply usually have ap-
peared epidemic in form, affecting
many consumers of the supply, the at
tention Of the public health authorities
directed to the improvement of public
water supplies had yielded impressive
results in the obstruction of excreea-
borne disease. In fact, water borne
epidemics in cities have become rare.
But like progress has not been made
in the reduction of water-borne typhoid
fever traceable to contaminated wells
and springs in the rural sections. Such
sources of water supply cannot be pro-
tected against contamination through
the use of elaborate publication pro-
cesses applicable to public supplies.
As result, private wells and springs
are often endangered by the proxim-
ity of insanitary privies or by the
careles practice of depositing excreta