Smyrna times., 1941-09-25
HEALTH UNIT
FIGHTS DISEASE
State Board of Health Makes
Physical Examinations
in Schools
URGES VACCINATION

Prevention OF disease is far bet
ter than trying to cure it after 1t
occurs, says DR.. E. F. Smith, di-
rector of the Kent County Health
Unit of the State Board of Health,
in telling about the physical exam
nations carried on in the schools,
an important part of which Is the
giving of toxoid for diphtheria and
the vaccinating against smallpox.
Both of these services are a defin-
ite part of the physical examina-
tion program and are entirely free
but the Kent County Health Unit
does require that parents sign
consent slips" which the teacher
sends home to the parent by the
child and which the parent must
return to the teacher after it is
signed, in order to obtain the bene-
fit of the free incubation and vac
cination. Delaware has made an
amazingly efficient drive against
diphtheria, according to DR.. Smith,
who cites the fact that there were
no deaths from it in the state last
year and that only 16 children con-
tracted the disease, whereas, in
1925 there were 204 cases with 80
resulting deaths and in 1880 there
were 127 cases with 20 deaths.
Immunity By Toxoid
However, if Delaware is to main
tain this low number of cases, it is
necessary to keep up the immunity
of the population by seeing that as
many children as possible have had
the diphtheria toxoid. DR.. Smith
stresses the fact that it is even
more important to have the young
er children at home immunized be-
cause a great number of cases oc-
cur between the ages of one to six
years. He states that both i'm
amunization for diphtheria and vac
cination for smallpox are splendid
forms of ''life insurance" for every
child. The Kent County Units
health officer advocates that babies
be immunized and vaccinated as
soon as possible after they reach
their ninth month. Though there
has been no record of smallpox in
Delaware for some years, the Unit
ed States Public Health Service re-
ports for the country as a whole
show 110,672 cases in 1920. Vigor-
GUS programs for vaccination
against this scourge were carried
on and in 1888 there were 1899
cases in the United States. These
reports also show that there are a
greater number of cases of small
pox in the areas where there is no
vaccination in the schools.
Smallpox Spreads Quickly
Few acute infectious diseases
show such complete independence
of conditions such as race, climate,
soil, age, sex, occupation, and san
itary surroundings, as does small
pox. 1t thrives wherever contag-
ion is carried and wherever it finds
susceptible people. Probably no
one is naturally immune. U. S.
Public Health reports show that
the occurrance of smallpox is
greater in areas where vaccination
is not practiced, and that the Unit
ed States is definitely one of the
countries which has a high rate of
this disease. With travel as extern
sive as it is now from coast to
coast, one may never be sure when
the disease might be brought into
the state. Once here it would spare
neither the high or the low, the
rich nor the poor, the clean nor the
dirty. To be vaccinated only in
the face of severe epidemic is
like locking the door after the
horse is gone. Physical examina-
Continued on Page Five)