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

6 The Health Bulletin December, 1951rate of active cases for a selected areaof Halifax County surveyed in January1950 to 1.8 per 1000, or exactly doublethe rate for that county in a routinemass survey in 1946. For details of Dr.Young's procedures, I refer you to hisexcellent article in the July 1951 HealthBulletin.A photofluorograph unit assigned toDuke Hospital was used in x-raying15,338 persons in 1950. These individualswere patients, visitors, and hospitalpersonnel. There were discovered 9.9cases of moderately and far advancedtuberculosis per 1000 persons. This isalmost five times as high as the rateof 2.1 moderately and far advancedcases per 1000 persons found in the160,133 non-hospital survey films takenin 1950. Every health department shouldstudy the possibility of cooperative continuoussurveys in local hospitals. Thesmall size of the hospital is not adeterring factor. Various types of arrangementscan be made to providethis service at a reasonable cost.Observation for unusual patterns ofcormnunicable disease incidence is abasic essential in preventing widespreadoutbreaks of naturally occurringdiseases and for the early detection ofpossible attempts at biological warfare.In order to make reporting somewhateasier, the Division of Epidemiology hasprepared for consideration by the StateBoard of Health a new type of reportcard to be put into use on January 1,1952, This card in intended to replacethe present three cards used to reportcommunicable diseases. At the time ofintroducing this card to local physiciansan ideal opportunity will exist forhealth departments to re-emphasizethe need for careful reporting of alldiseases presently required to be reportedand any unusual appearance ofany other disease.Observation of school and industrialabsenteeism, as well as hospital admissionsby local health officers, industrialphysicians, and private practitionerswill be of help in the early detection ofwidespread illness. This probably canbe done best by delegating a certainamount of responsibility to school, industrialand hospital personnel whohave been properly instructed as towhat information is needed.All of the states of this country arenow participating in an epidemic reportingsystem. North Carolina healthofficers were notified of this programon January 4, 1951, together with therequest that reports be submittedpromptly regarding the unusual incidenceof any disease, whether on thereportable list or not. This reportingprogram, if properly emphasized byeach state, will be of great mutualbenefit to all. For this reason everyprivate physician and public healthworker as a member of the epidemiologicalintelligence corps has a responsibilityin the reporting of diseases notonly to his own community but also tothe state and nation.SANITARIAN IN CIVIL DEFENSEBy J. M. Jarrett, DirectorSanitary Engineering DivisionNorth Carolina State Board of HealthIn considering the role of the sanitarianin Civil Defense activities, weare immediately reminded of the sanitationproblems which may be createdby any type of major disaster, such asfloods, tornadoes, fires and earthquakes,as well as destruction wrought by war.Therefore, before we get into a detaileddiscussion of the many items involvedand the suggestions which havebeen made as to emergency or remedialmeasures which would need to be takenfollowing a bombing or other destructionbrought about by an attack by theenemy, we might list the major headingsor topics which will be discussed