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

8 The Health Bulletin August, 1951military achievement. Thousands ofstudies were made in many laboratoriesscattered all over the county, but theInitiation, coordination and generalguidance of the entire program of researchand development was carried onin the division of sanitation of the Armypreventive medicine service in Washington.The wartime development of DDTalone has been worth more than thetotal cost of the Army's entire researchprogram during the war. DDT was thegreatest contribution of the war, notonly to military but to civilian health.It has freed us from the fear of typhusand it is now being used to conquermalaria, even in the tropics.Prevention of Specific Diseases.—Inaddition to these general health measures,the Army's preventive medicineprogram included other activities designedto protect the soldier againstspecific diseases. The following divisionsof the preventive medicine service wereconcerned with this phase of the problem;medical intelligence, epidemiology,laboratories, venereal disease control,and tropical disease control. They wereassisted by the Army EpidemiologicalBoard and by the Typhus Commission.The coordinated work of the membersof these five divisions, the Board andthe Commissions, was concerned with(1) the collection of exact informationabout the diseases that might attackAmerican troops in any part of theworld, (2) the analysis of current diseasestatistics, (3) the maintenance ofadequate diagnostic and health laboratoriesfor the identification of diseaseproducingorganisms, (4) the developmentof policies, (5) recommendationsfor qiiick action to control threatenedoutbreaks of disease, and (6) the initiationof medical research in the laboratoriesand in the field to develop moreeffective control methods. Through theseactivities, the Surgeon General waskept informed at all times of the incidenceof disease in our troops and incivil populations throughout most ofthe world. This enabled him to make intelligentplans for the protection of thetroops.Immunization.—Theoretically, theideal method for the specific control ofinfectious diseases would be throughimmunization. Although only a limitednumber of effective immunizing agentshave been discovered, those that areavailable have contributed much to themaintenance of America's fighting manpower.A conference of representativesof the Army, Navy, and U. S. PublicHealth Service held early in 1940 inWashington recommended active immunizationagainst smallpox, typhoid,the paratyphoid fevers, and tetanus. Italso recommended that immunizationagainst certain diseases, including diphtheria,Rocky Mountain spotted fever,plague, and cholera, be used only whenneeded to meet local conditions. Later,other immunizing procedures wereadopted for use under special conditionsas, for example, the vaccinesagainst epidemic typhus and yellowfever, both of which are consideredeffective. Experimental work also wasdone to develop vaccines against thedysenteries, the various types of encephalitis,influenza, et cetera. We stilldo not have a useful vaccine against thedysenteries; the vaccines against encephalitisand influenza still require improvementto meet the needs of theArmy.Occupational Hazards and Health.The division of occupational healthincluded branches dealing with (1) thehealth of workers in Army—owned industrialplants, (2) industrial hazardsand accidents, (3) toxicology and, (4)the hazards of operating tanks andother mechanized Army transportation.This division initiated and supervisedthe activities of the Army IndustrialResearch Laboratory at Johns HopkinsUniversity and the Armored Forces ResearchLaboratory at Fort Knox.Civilian Health In Occupied Countries.—The civil public health division wasconcerned with plans to protect thehealth of the civil population of conqueredor liberated countries insofar asthis influenced military activities.Throughout World War II this divisionworked closely with the medical intelligencedivision and with the War De-