Evening star., 1946-05-11
AdmiHance Of Nearby
Communicable Cases
By GalIinger Urged
By Harold B.Rsuers. .

from nearby areas suffering from
communicable diseases, the Metro
politan Health and Hospital Sur
vey proposes a new inter-area
agreement to use Gallinger Hospi-
tai here and to develop new facili-
ties in suitable general hospitals in
the outlying areas.
These suggestions comprise the
principal recommendation in Chap
ter II, Communicable Disease Con-
troll" of the survey report published
today.
Citing difficulties in the past over
attempts of nearby counties to get
their patients into Gallinger, the
report recommends ''the facilities OF
Gallinger should be made freely
available to the entire metropolitan
area under agreements by which
the Virginia and Maryland areas
would pay for the cost of care"
Recommends Contracts.
The agreements, it was recon-
mended, should include suitable
contracts providing for the pay
ment of costs, including amortiza-
ton OF capital investment, by the
cities and counties whose patients
are admitted"
1t would be most unWlSe to de.
velop separate isolation hospitals ir
the smaller areas, since such insti-
tutions are extremely costly anc
inefficient" the report suggests, add.
ing that general hospitals in the
nearby areas also should develor
facilities where some of their owl
communicable disease patients
could be cared for.
In addition to this recommenda
ton, the survey made three other
major proposals:
= The adoption of a uniform code
for reporting and control of com.
munlcable diseases by the six politi.
cal Jurisdictions involved, based or
the standard procedures outlined
by the American Public Health AS.
sociation. ~
THE passage in the District o1
projected legislation for isolation
and treatment of persons suffering
from syphilis and tuberculosis.
THE Inauguration in all the sis
Jurisdictions of an organized pro.
gram for the control of streptococ.
cal diseases. based on laboratory
grouping"
= Relatively Small" Problem.
The health and hospital survey
was Nnade for the Metropolitan
Health Council by~a board of three
surveyors, widely known as experts
in their field. They are DR.. D. E. A
Winslow,of New Haven, Conn, pro-
fessor emeritus, department of Pub
lice Health, Yale University; DR.
Ira V. Hiscock, who also is vice
president of the National Health
CouncN-, and DR.. Claude w. Munger
administrator of st. Luke's Hospital
New York City, and president of the
American College of Hospital Ad.
miniStrators. -
"The problem of acute communi-
cable diseases" is, of course, a rela.
lively small one, from quantitative
standpoint" the report said. In the
entire metropolitan area, during the
five-year period 1910 to 1914, there
were only II deaths from diphtheria
Is from scarlet fever, 13 from
measles, 10 from typhoid fever, ane
79 from wfooping cough. This fact
the report says, emphasizes the i'm.
portance of protection from whoop.
ing cough through the use of per.
tussis vaccine. t.
The burden of at least three o.
these diseases was fairly serious
however, the report said, with
measles taking the lead in number
of cases-11,552 in the District anc
1908 in the five adjacent areas
Scarlet fever was second, with 6,41t
in the District and 2,875 in the near.
by communities, and whoopine
cough third with 3,083 in the Dis.
trict and 1896 nearby.
Dumping" Patients Opposed.
More than one-third of all case.
OF these three diseases were reported
from the five adjacent areas. The
two-thirdS from the District were
cared for at Gallinger Hospital. The
other third, from the adjacent areas
the report points out, have no ade.
quate provision for care outside the
home. From the Maryland counties
they must be sent to Baltimore, 6
policy which is likely to be carried
out only in the most urgent cases
Alexandria reported its "only pos.
sible recourse is to dump patients al
Gallinger where the authorities may
be forced to take them in, although
the District policy is hostile to such
procedure"
Arlington has suffered severely,
the report said, having no loca
detention facilities and having beer
faced with most serious problems ir
connection with large transient pop.
ulations, such as those at Arlington
Hall, the Pentagon Building ane
the airport. All local health officer!
justly complain of this situation.
I'm the recent epidemics of polio
myelitis, District facilities wer'
made available for adjacent areas
but there was considerable della,
and confusion before the policy wa
brought into full operation"
The immunization program of tn
District was said by the report to b.
well developed" all children beinI
protected against smallpox on en-
trance to public, parochial, and pri
vate schools. With respect to diph
liberia, it is estimated that IS pc
cent of all children under year
are immunized, and the mortalit
from this disease has been reduce,
from five per 100000 in 1885 t
zero in 1914. Pertussis vaccine an,
gamma globulin are provided fo
protection of young. children agains
whooping cough and measles, re
spectively. ...-s
Pneumonia Deaths Slashed.
Sulfa drugs and penicillin ar
made available for the treatmen
OF pneumonia, and the deaths fron
this disease were said to have fallel
from 131 per 100000 in 1885 to
per 100000 in 1914.
In adjacent areas, control of com
municable diseases by the healt
p -