1893-1894 - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

138 NORTH CAROIJXA liOARr) OF HEALTH.
Health in accordance with tlie requirement in section 9 of the act, and
therefore a part of the law, was mailed to eveiy registered
physician in
the State with the exception of those in three counties, from the Superior
Court Clerks of wdiich no replies have been received to letters requesting
a list of the registered pln'sicians in their counties.
Section 9 says: "Inland quarantine shall be under the control of the
County Superintendent, who shall see that diseases especially dangerous
to the public health, viz., small-pox, diphtheria, scarlet fever, yellow
fever, typhus fever and cholera, are pirjperly
quarantined and isolated
within twenty-four hours after the case is brought to his knowledge, etc."
Section 10 says: "When a householder knows that a person within his
family is sick of either of the diseases enumerated in section 9 he shall
immediately give notice thereof to the health officer or mayor if he
resides in a city or incorporated town, otherwise to the County Superintendent
of Health; and section 11 requires the attending physician to
give the same notice as soon as he makes a diagnosis of one of these
diseases."
To successfully carry out the law in relation to contagious diseases a
cordial co-operation between the County Superintendent or local health
officer, the attending physician and the householder, is necessary.
These words are penned in the hope of aiding as far as possible in
bringing about tliis necessar}- co-operation by suggesting how it may be
best managed practically. The County Superintendent or municipal
medical health officer is responsible and he cannot evade his responsibility,
and whatever may be the method used in performing this duty
that fact must not be lost sight of. It is manifestly impracticable to
expect a County Superintendent in a large county on an entirely inadequate
salary to personally superintend the quarantining of the patients
and the disinfection of the premises and articles used after death or
recovery in every case of contagious disease. Our health officers ought
to be paid enough to justify them in giving their whole time to sanitary
work, some of us think, but the people of our State certainly do not yet
take that view of it, and until they do we must do the best we can with
what they give us. The idea has been suggested that some physicians
might look upon the appearance of the Superintendent of Health in the
sanitary management of their cases as an intrusion and that trouble
might arise in consequence. While there could be no just ground for
such a feeling if the health officer confined himself to his duties and the
attending physician were as courteous as we have right to expect, .still
is always best to avoid anything that might lead to unnecessary friction.
To that end it seems to the Secretary of the State Board that the best
plan would l)e this: Let the County Superintendent or municipal medical
health officer obtain from all registered physicians, who are theniselves
members of the County Boards of Health, their promise (prefera-
it