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

The Health Bulletin October, 1951VETERINARY PUBLIC HEALTHBy Maktin p. Hines, D.V.M., M.P.H.North Carolina State Board of HealthThere are today over 80 diseases ofanimals that are transmissible to humans,either directly or indirectly.Many of these animal diseases arefound only in remote, backward areasof the world, where peculiar habits andcustoms, together with a low standardof living, make control and eradicationalmost an impossibility.The field of veterinary public healthis not new, by any means. The closerelationship between animal and humandiseases has been recognized for a longtime. Slowly we have come to realizethat a sound, healthy animal industryis essential to a sound economy and ahealthy population. The control of suchdiseases as cattle tuberculosis, anthrax,glandus and encephalomyelitis are examplesof the accomplishments of veterinariansin public health, not to mentionthe important programs in the fieldof milk and meat sanitation. Yet,withthis great progress in the past, therestill remains a long way to go in protectingthe human population againstdiseases of animal origin.Veterinary Must Set UpRecently, the North Carolina StateBoard of Health established, for thefirst time, a Veterinary Public HealthSection which will operate under theDivision of Epidemiology. It will be thepolicy of the Veterinary Public HealthSection of the State Board of Health toaid the local county and city health departmentsi n establishing adequaterabies control programs, and to beavailable for consultation in regard toany animal diseases transmissible tohuman beings. The duties and responsibilitiesof the State Public HealthVeterinarian will also include coordinatingthe efforts toward local control ofthe various animal diseases that aretransmissible to man, by encouragingaccurate reporting, and by preparingand distributing educational materialthroughout the state.The initial project of the VeterinaryPublic Health Section will be to establisha state-wide rabies control program,with operational phases carriedout through the local health departments.The great number of rabid animalsthat are reported annually is adisgrace, especially when we have theadequate tools at hand to control oreradicate this dreadful disease. Todayonly 12 of the 48 states are free ofrabies and only 12 of the 36 states, withrabies, have adequate programs. Eachyear over 30,000 people in the UnitedStates take the series of vaccine inoculations,as a result of being exposed torabid, or suspected rabid, animals. Thisseries of inoculations is long and oftenpainful, and could be entirely eliminatedby adequate rabies control programs.The most alarming fact at thepresent time concerning rabies is that,during the past 15 years, the number ofrabies cases in anmials has increased.Local rabies control programs are bestcarried out on a county-wide basis.Since the rabid dog does not respectboundaries and often can run thelength and breadth of the averagecounty, successful results cannot be expectedif a program is limited to a cityor town, without including the rural orsuburban areas of that county.Local Progravi EncouragedThere are 100 counties in the stateof North Carolina, and the local publichealth services are provided for all ofthese counties, through 67 local healthdepartments. On April 1 of each year,many of these health departments organizeand promote programs to controlrabies. In past years there has been atendency for the public to "brush aside"these programs in many counties mwhich rabies in animals has not beenprevalent. It is not uncommon to hearone say. "Why bother with the vaccinationof my dog when there has not beena rabid dog in the county for years?"