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

March, 1921 The Health Bulletin 11
second attack of smallpox for the iudividual,
but he states that the first
attack was reported as having occurred
when the woman was a baby. There
was no way to establish the first diagnosis.
A Surry County physician reports
a ease in a man who had not
been vaccinated, whose wife slept with
him two nights after the eruption appeared.
The wife and two boys were
vaccinated, all successfully, and neither
of the three, together with thiee girls
in the family who had been vaccinated
early in 1923, contracted the disease.
This ob.servation is not unusual for any
physician or health officer to duplicate.
One of the county health officers of
the State says that not one case ever
reported to his office has ever been
vaccinated. Another piedmont county
physician reported the death of a smallpox
patient from a virulent type of the
disease, who had never been vaccinated
; but the vaccination of ten of his
children after exposure was successful
and not one took the disease. One of
the hard luck cases was reported from
Kandolph County and was that of a
man who had four vaccinations without
success, distributed during the previous
fourteen yeais. The moral of that tale
is "Keep on trying." If the first vaccination
is not successful, it does not
mean that one is immune to smallpox.
In conclusion, one doctor reported that
one patient did not believe in vaccination,
but had a real case of smallpox,
which he could not fail to believe in.
FIRE PREVENTION CLEAN-UP CAMPAIGN
In the State of North Carolina there
were reported for the year l*J26 two
hundred and eighty deaths from fire
accidents. A few other delayed' reports
may later be received slightly increasing
these figures. The large number of
deaths from this absolutely preventable
accident thus about equals the deaths
caused from typhoid fever.
Dr. Arthus Emmons, associate secretary
of the American Public Health
Association, and other officials of that
association have joined enthusiastically
with officials of the National Fire Protection
Association in designating the
third week in April as a "Fire Prevention
Clean-Up Campaign." Tlie chief
aim of this activity should be the conservation
of health, life, and property
along the lines advocated so Sensibly
by men like Herbert Hoover and others.
We trust that every town, city, and
county health officer in the State of
North Carolina will join with all other
agencies operating in the State, of
whatever character, in making this
third week in Apiil effort a success.
It need hardly be said now that the
average health officer understands that
a c'.ean-up campaign is in order every
day and every week in the year: but
if the public can be induced to reflect
seriously for even one \^eek on the
great menace to life and proiierty from
destructive fires, carelessly started in
nearly all cases, the effort will be well
worth while.
PNEUMONIA DEATH RATE INCREASING
It has been estimated that in the past
quaiter of a century the death rate in
the United States from pneumonia has
increased twenty-five per cent. The fact
is that in some states pneumonia causes
nearly as many di aths now as tuberculosis
and cancer combined. In North
CaroUna it causes more deaths than
tuberculosis and more than twice as
many as cancel'. The mortality still
remains high. Probably 25 per cent to
30 iier cent of all people who have
genuine lobar pneumonia die. Peojile
generally have never realized that
pneumonia is one of the most dreaded
and deadly diseases physicians are
called on to combat. It may be that
if we had organized associations to
spread publicity concerning its rirevalence
and dangers people might become
more interested.
The cause of pneumonia is definitely
known, but as yet there is no specific
for its prevention or treatment. Nearly
all physicians are agreed, however, that
if all persons who have so-called colds,
resi)irat(>ry infections of any kind, with
inflamed irritable throats susceptible
to any kind of virulent infection, wtmld
remain away from poorly ventilated,