Evening star., 1947-02-20
For a Healthier America
A Greater Public Interest and Medical Science
Are Bringing New Frontiers Into Sight
Bv Thomas Parran
Surgeon General United States Public Health Service

This year of reconversion has been
time of unprecedented public interest
in the health problems of the Nation.
This new concern with problems of
health springs from many sources In
part, it is a result of the conditions
revealed by Selective Service examin-
ations. In part, it is due to the dramatic
advances made in certain fields of med
ical science in recent years. Another
factor is the experience of our service
men and women, millions of whom have
known. for the first time. the benefits
of comprehensive medical care and pre-
ventive medicine They have returned
home with new concepts of what can
and should be accomplished in their own
communities.
This year is notable for three mile
stones in the history of public health:
Cd PASSAGE of the Hospital Survev and
Construction Act. (2) passage of the
National Mental Health Act, (3) draft
ing a constitution for the World Health
Organization Each holds great promise
for future accomplishments.
The HOSPITAL Survev and Construction
Act provides for extensive Federal aid
to States in surveying their needs for
HOSPITALS and health centers, and the
construction of facilities to meet these
needs.
We Attack Mental Illness.
The National Mental Health Act
marks the first co-ordinated. lsrge-scale
attack on a problem which has been
dramatized during the war by selective
service reflections, by the psychiatric
eynerience of our armed forces. and by
the overcroWding and urderstaffino of
our civilian mental Institutions The
war. however. onlv called attention to
a condition which was alreadv acute
Mental disorders today affect. in some
degree, an estimated 8000.00n Amer
leans. and fill more than half of the
hospital beds in the Nation The an
nual economic loss due to hospitalized
cases alone was estimated at 81 100000
decade ago; since that time, the popu
lation of our mental hospitals has in
creased bv one-half The role OF psy
chiatric disorders in causing Juvenile
delinquency and crime as well as per-
sonal inefficiencv and unhappiness is
becoming increasingly evident. Yet our
existing hospitals are Inadequate to care
even for the most seriously i'll. We have
but a fraction of the clinics and out
patient services needed to treat mild
cases for progressive disorders before
they become disabling We are woefully
short of trained personnel of all kinds.
This act authorizes the appropriation
of $7,500,000 for the construction OF
National Institute of Mental Health
which is to conduct research, serve as
national center for the coordination
of research and the exchange OF infor-
nation, and provide advanced training
for specialists in this field. The annual
appropriation authorized for assistance
to the States in their public health
programs is increased by $4,000, 900 to
cover the new mental health activities.
For Federal Employees.
Another progressive measure adopted
by the Congress authorizes Federal de-
partments and agencies to set up en-
ploye health programs, providing treat
naents of on-the- job illness and emer-
gency dental treatment, medical exam
nations, referral services and pre-
ventive programs. The function OF the
Public Health Service in this connec-
ton will be to consult with agencies
establishing new programs and, upon
request, to review those already in oper-
alton.
With only few exceptions the COM
municable disease situation in this coun-
try has been favorable during the past
year. The outstanding exceptions were
the epidemic of respiratory disease dur
ing the winter, the increased incidence
of diphtheria, the outbreak OF Oriental
smallpox on the Pacific Coast early
this year, and the continued prevalence
of poliomyelitis.
The stimulus given to tuberculosis
control throughout the country in the
first two years of the Public Health
Service program is reflected in the fact
that there are now more than 700
miniature film X-ray units in use by
official and voluntary agencies. During
the past year emphasis has been placed
on four aspects of the problem, the
value of routine chest X-rays for all
patients on admission to hospitals; the
practicability of mass surveys in rural
areas by means of mobile x-ray units;
the rehabilitation of the tuberculosis
patient to economic self-sufficiency and
the need for additional treatment facil-
tiles
With further development of the rapid
treatment methods for venereal dis
ease, and the expansion of facilities
for their application, there has come
a shift of emphasis in the venereal dis
ease control program. Stress is now
being laid on the problems of finding
new cases and of tracing and bringing
to treatment as many contacts as pos
sible
The program of malaria control in
war areas has fulfilled its mission, and
activities have been redirected toward
an attack on the permanent foci of
malaria
Funds for grants-in- aid to States for
cancer control programs are specifically
provided, for the first time, in the
budget for 1867, which allocates S2,5oo'-.
900 for this purpose. Cancer control
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