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

146 NORTH CAROLINA BOARD OF HEALTH.
VACCIXATIOX.
In a recent letter from one of the largest practitioners in the State,
living in a town of over five tliousand inhabitants, situated on one of
the main lines of travel, this startling sentence occurs: "In making
inquiries I find that there are scarcely a dozen children in the whole town
who have ever been vaccinated." Wliile we were painfully aware of
the fact that the number of the unvaccinated was alarming, we had no
idea the state of affairs was so bad as shown by the above. This is an
extremely serious matter, as all must admit, and it is becoming more
and more serious every day. In our last issue we called attention to the
rapid spread of small-pox over the United States and sounded a note of
warning. Since that time the disease has made its appearance in our
own State—in Cherokee; but thanks to the prompt and vigorous action
of the County Superintendent of Health looking to the quarantining of
the patient he did not abide with us long. Rather than be quarantined
he left the State, thei-eby demonstrating in a very practical and satisfactory
manner the value to the community of an organized health department
with an alert health officer. Most fortunately also he came in contact
with none except those who were protected by a previous attack of
the disease, and we have good reason therefore to hope that he will not
leave a trail behind him. There is no reason why a smiilar case should
not crop out at any other point in the State, particularly on the main
lines of travel, which are now more than commonly infested with tramps.
It is most unlikely to happen again that every one exposed is protected,
and if not there is no telling, in view of the great number of unvaccinated
persons to be found everywhere in the State, what a terrible scourge
might then and there be originated. The danger is a real one, but how
to get the people to realize it and to avail themselves of the protection
so easily obtainable is the question, and a most difficult question it is to
answer. Most persons not aquainted with the temper of our people
would say at once make vaccination compulsory. That sounds well,
but it would be vox et preterea nihil. In the first place, in the opinion
of the writer, our Legislature could not be induced to enact such a
law; and if it could the law would, unsupported by public sentiment,
be a dead letter. As to what public sentiment on this subject is the following
will illustrate: At the conjoint session of the State Board of
Health with the State Medical Society in Wilmington in 1892 one of our
County Superintendents reported that going to a public school-house to
vaccinate the children, according to a previous appointment, he found
the house shut up and the entire school, teacher and all, taken to the
woods. Again, more recently, an outbreak of the small-pox occurred in
an adjoining State about fifty or sixty miles from one of our progressive
towns. The Town Commissioners discussed the advisability of
passing an ordinance making vaccination compulsory, whereupon some