The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

March, 192^4
The Health Bulletin
fully in order to see without a doubt
in the world that the control of the
disease is a pre-school problem.
Now, just what does that mean It
means among other things, that the
situation cannot be helped much by
working through the schools and school
organization, with the exception of the
educational work done through the
Parent-Teacher Association. It means
that the work must be done for babies
over six months of age on up to the
age of three years, for the most part.
So if children everywhere are to be
protected from diphtheria by using
toxin-antitoxin it must be done largely
through the efforts of parents and
practicing physicians. It is the duty of
every practicing physician to urge the
parents of every family in his practice
to immunize all children under six years
of age. The advice and suggestions of
no one else is worth one-tenth as much
on a question of this character as that
of the family physician. The parents
also nine times out of ten are more
ready to listen to his advice when some
member of the family, especially one
of the children, is sick necessitating the
call of the family physician. At such
times the parents are concerned about
the family health and have their minds
centered on illness and its prevention
as at no other time. The physician who
makes a habit of this practice is serving
the family doubly well and in addition
he has the satisfaction of knowing that
he is doing just as much to control a
terrible disease as the research worker
in the laboratory. He Is also conscious
of doing a very valuable public service ;
and one that no one else can do for
the public. It is the duty of the parents
of all small children to have their
children immunized. Do not wait for
suggestions from your physician, but
look him up and talk it over with him,
get his advice and most important let
him begin the treatment at once.
For those people who have no regular
family physician and who cannot afford
to pay for the treatment, it is easy
to secure this free from the health department,
city or county, in about onehalf
the State. For those counties and
towns where there are no organized
health departments it should be the
duty of the part-time county physician
to provide free administration of the
preventive treatment when necessary.
He can arrange for compensation
through the county board. The point is
every child in the State of North Carolina
should have the benefit of this
immunity. It matters very little
through what agency it is procured, just
so the children, all of them, get the
protection which is their due. After
all the cost is very small, and the
systematic administration of toxinantitoxin
every year, in every county
in the State, to all children born in
the county, would be insignificant in
cost compared to the saving of life
and the driving out of diphtheria. So
much for preventing diphtheria, the
disease, with ensuing danger and often
death. The ounce of prevention here
is certainly worth the pound of cure,
many of them. But for those people
in every walk of life who are always
slow in availing themselves of such
things, if death from the disease is to
be prevented entirely there is a solemn
duty to perform. That duty, neglect of
which is cruel and criminal, is to send
for a competent physician at the very
first appearance of symptoms in any
way resembling diphtheria. Delay
means death to the child. The physician
also has an equally solemn duty, the
neglect of which is criminal a thousand
times over. It is the ph.vsician's duty
when called to treat illness in children
which may be diphtheria, to use antitoxin
at once if in any doubt whatever
about his diagnosis. He can get confirmation
from the laboratory later, but
he can never recover for the helpless
child a single lost hour of time in dealing
with such a treacherous disease as
diphtheria. Any physician who makes
a diagnosis of "tonsilitis" or "septic
sore throat" in any child unless he is
absolutely sure it is not diphtheria
is assuming a very grave responsibility.
He is in a class with the parent who
contents himself with rubbing the outside
of the child's throat with one whatnot
or another while the little one may
be slowly dying from diphtheria. Therefore
let us hope that it will soon be
the fashion all over this State to give
every child the preventive treatment
to protect against diphtheria and so
prevent possible remorse and regrets on
the part of parent, physician, and
health officer afterward.