Evening star., 1941-03-09
Ten Leading Causes
OF Death at Lowest
Rates in U.S.. History
Pneumonia Declines
II Pct; Use of New
Druqs Is Credited
By THOMAS r. HENRY.

The United States has just
passed through the healthiest year
In its history, preliminary statistics
received here indicate.
They consist of reports to the
Public Health Service, the Census
Bureau and the records of policy
holders of large life insurance COM
panies. Ten serious causes of death
measles, scarlet fever, Whooping
cough, diphtheria. pneumonia, tu-
berculosiS, diarrhea, appendicitis,
childbirth and murder-reached the
lowest rates in the Nations history
for the year.
The greatest killer of all these
was pneumonia. In three years its
death rate has been cut approx
mately in half. from 10 to 35 per
100000. 1t dropped about II per
cent in 1910. as compared to 1899.
This is almost entirely due, Public
Health Service officials claim, to the
wider use of highly potent pneu-
monia serums and the steady i'm
provement in drugs of the sulfanlla-
mide family such as the newly in
troduced sulfathiaZole,
The big gain in control of pneu-
monia has been in the face OF a
widespread epidemic of Influenza
during at least two months of the
year. Even mild influenza strongly
predispoSes to the more serious
malady.
Childbirth Deaths Drop.
Deaths from childbirth, according
TO the statistics of a large lnSur-
ance company whose pollcyholders
are a fair sample of the population
as a whole, fell nearly 10 per cent
during the year, although it is
probable that slightly more children
were born than in 1889. This was
due to no new sovereign remedy,
but. so far as Public Health Service
doctors can reconstruct the picture,
to an intensive educational cam
paign by the Government and vari-
GUS private institutions.
Prospective mothers have been
educated to receive prenatal care
and to demand sanitary obstetrics.
At the same time communities
have provided more means OF OBJ
tanning these. But even today
America has one of the highest
maternity death rates in the world
The mortality from appendicitis
also dropped about 10 per cent, the
preliminary statistics indicate. Pro-
portionately fewer died of 1t than
in any other year of the Nations S
history since the disease first was
recognized about IS years ago. This,
Public Health Service officials be-
lieve, also is due in large part to
education. People have been taught
not to doctor themselves but to
consult a physician at once when
they have appendicitis symptoms.
There have been some improve
ments in surgery, but no major rev.
olution which would account for
the drop
Total Death Rate Also Down.
About 10 years ago it was first
noted that in the face of all ad-
vances in diagnosis and surgery the
appendicitis death rate was rapidly
increasing. This was a challenge
to medical societies all over the
country. Educational committees
OF prominent physicians were Or
ganized in each city. Now the
tide seems definitely to have been
turned.
The total death rate for the
United States has dropped, these
figures show. about 40 per cent
since 1911. The average length of
life is now about So years. a gain
in three decades Of about l6 years
per person.
Only about one eighth as many
children, in proportion to the num-
bers in the population, die between
the ages of l and a. Between 5 and
9 there is a three-fourths gain. From
this point on the percentage of gain
mounts more slowly until. for per-
sons over IS, there is no gain at all
and may be slight loss Even in
the decade from 35 to "A, the start
of middle age, the rate has been
cut nearly in two. From 65 to IA
the gain is almost 25 per cent.
There is little prospect of cutting
down these figures very markedly,
Public Health Service officials claim,
unless some new sovereign remedy
for large number of fatal ailments,
such as the sulfanilamide group has
proved to be, can be found.
Otherwise they look forward to
p constant battle to preserve the
gain already made, with a slow
advance against some of the more
important causes of death through
intensive campaigns of public edu-
cation.