Evening star., 1946-05-11
Admittance Of Nearby
Communicable Cases
By Gahinger Urged
By HanId B. Rogers

Oy HOiNio o. rogers
To solve the long standing prob
lem Of strained relations between
nearby communities and Washing.
ton over what to do with patient.
from nearby areas suffering from
communicable diseases, the Metro
politan Health and Hospital Sur.
vey proposes a new inter-ares
agreement to use Gallinger Hospi.
tai. here and to develop new facili.
ties in suitable general hospitals IL
the outlying areas.
These suggestions comprise tn,
principal recommendation in Chap.
ter II, Communicable Disease Con.
troll" of the survey report published
today.
Citing difficulties in the past ovel
attempts of nearby counties to ge
their patients into Gallinger, tn,
report recommends "the facilities O.
Gallinger should be made freely
available to the entire metropolitan
area under agreements by which
the Virginia and Maryland area.
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.
tion of capital investment, by tn,
cities and counties whose patient.
are admitted"
1t would be most unwise to de-
velop separate isolation hospitals il
the smaller areas. since such insti
tutions are extremely costly ant
inefficient" the report suggests, add
ing that general hospitals in tn,
nearby areas also should develo,
facilities where some of their owl
communicable disease patient;
could be cared for.
In addition to this recommenda
ton, the survey made three othel
major proposals:
"Ihe adoption of a uniform cod.
for reporting and control OF com.
munlcable diseases by the six politi.
cal jurisdictions involved, based OF
the standard procedures outlined
by the American Public Health AS.
sociation.
"Ihe passage in the District O.
projected legislation for isolation
and treatment of persons suffering
from syphilis and tuberculosis.
'The Inauguration in all the 81,
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 made 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
Council, 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 commune
cable diseases" is, of course, a rela-
lively small one, from a quantitative
standpoint" the report said. In the
entire metropolitan area, during the
hve-year period 1910 to 1914, there
were only II deaths from diphtheria,
13 from scarlet fever, 13 from
measles, 18 from typhoid fever, and
IS from whooping cough. This fact,
the report says, emphasizes the i'm
portance of protection from whoop-
ing cough through the use of per-
tusSis vaccine.
The burden of at least three of
these diseases was fairly serious, -
however, the report said, with
measles taking the lead in number
OF cases-11, ,552 in the District and
1908 in the five adjacent areas.
Scarlet fever was second, with 6,416
in the District and 2,875 in the near
by communities, and whooping
cough third with 3,083 in the Dis
trict and 1896 nearby.
Dumping" Patients Opposed.
More than one-third of all cases
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, a
policy which is likely to be carried
out only in the most urgent cases.
Alexandria reported it's "only DOS
sible recourse is to dump patients at
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 local
detention facilities and having been
faced with most serious problems in
connection with large transient pop
ulations, such as those at Arlington
Hall, the Pentagon Building and
the airport. All local health officers
justly complain of this situation.
"In the recent epidemics of polio
myelitis, District facilities were
made available for adjacent areas,
but there was considerable delay
and confusion before the policy was
brought into full operation"
The immunization program of the
District was said by the report to be
well developed" all children being
protected against smallpox on en-
trance to public, parochial, and pri-
vate schools. With respect to diph-
iberia, it is estimated that 65 per
cent of all children under S years
are immunized, and the mortality
from this disease has been reduced
from five per 100000 in 1885 to
zero In 1914. Pertussis vaccine and
gamma globulin are provided fol-
protection of young children against
whooping cough and measles, re-
spectively.
Pneumonia Deaths Slashed.
Sulfa drugs and penicillin are
t-I