The Phoenix index., 1940-09-28

by the Georgia Committee on In
terracial Cooperation.
By WAYMOND REEVES, M. D.
President Atlanta Medical Society
GOOD HEALTH, LONG life, and
happiness are not accidents that
happen to fortunate people. If one
has the proper knowledge of how
health and disease work, he has
in his own hands the choice as to
whether or not he will enjoy to
full measure the blessings just
mentioned. Health education will
aid only intelligently to make the
necessary choice.
For this reason health education
must be recognized as one of the
most important health needs of the
Negroes in Georgia-important be-
cause they are not expressed to any
great degree to the benefits that
would ordinarily come from infor-
nation on prevention rather than
cure of disease which can be cir
culated through various phases of
Health Education Programs.
Since 1916 a committee of the
Health Officers Section of the
American Public Health Association
has been doing research work and
preparing reports on standard reg
ulations for the administrative con-
troll of communicable diseases.
These ardent health officers have
set standard by which our health
education problems can be simpli-
fled.
Their latest report reads: First
define the disease each disease is
briefly described with regards to
its clinical and laboratory recogni-
ton, the astrological agent, the
source of infection. the mode of
transmission, the incubation period,
the period of communicability, sus-
ceptibility, immunity, and preva-
lence." The health educator, with
these instruments in hands, has the
ability to administer measures bear
ing on control and prevention of the
disease in question. If the knowl-
edge he has is properly disSeminat-
ed among and applied by the laity,
much progress will be made toward
the reduction of the morbidity and
mortality rates. ...-.
SANITATION, HYGIENE
AND DIET ....-....- -.
Sanitation, hygiene, and diet are
important instruments, which if
properly used in our daily lives will
serve as disease preventions. I'm
proper health education facilities,
however, prevent this knowledge
from reaching the masses of Ne
groes of Georgia, who are already
victims of conditions which con-
tribute to i'll health.
Sanitation and hygiene are terms
which are often confused. Sanitary
science is an organized body of
knowledge pertaining to the pres
ervation of health through the con-
troll of environmental conditions.
Hygiene is the science of the care
of the human body for the protec-
tiop of health. Hygiene, then, may
be considered personal and SANTA
ton impersonal.
AS for hygiene, the free use of
soap and water and a bi-weekly
or tri-weekly change of clothing
along with proper body elimina-
tions will do much to protect our
health.
Improper application of diet
knowledge have contributed much
to the high morbidity and mortal
ity rates among Negroes in Geor-
gia. Studies have shown that the
average Georgia diet as far below
the standard necessary for the
maintenance of a satisfactory state
of health. 1t consists too largely Of
grain products; fats, and sweets;
and it contains too little of the pro-
tective foods; milk, eggs, fruits.
vegetables.
Many of us have had the erron-
eous idea that milk, cheese, fresh
fruits, poultry products, and fresh
vegetables were luXurieS but now
We know that they are necessities
to the maintenance of balanced
diet. The standard diet for fruits
and vegetables is 18 percent; Geor-
gia uses only 9.3 percent. On the
other hand, the standard diet for
fats is II percent, and Georgia uses
24.7; and so it goes on in this un-
balanced way.
We remember what happened to
Columbus on his first voyage to
the new world and recall the sour
Wy, beri-beri, and other diseases
which his men suffered because of
nutritional deficiencies. In our
present-day Georgia, pellagra is the
prevalent nutritional disease which
ing a word, or undisturbed good
humor?
There are a great many men and
women who have in their chain OF
character one link az fault They