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

April, 1951The Health Bulletincomes. Both means are desirable. Thefirst is secured through public health,which protects us from disease; the secondthrough individual health, whichenables us to fight disease.Now, the individualism which I amemphasizing must apply with equalforce to the individual health officerand the individual family physicianas well as to the individual layman.From all accounts there is need of muchsweeping in front of the doors of somehealth authorities. "Practice what youpreach" may be too unjust an admonition,but that is the substance of whatis needed. The public is surely prone tojudge us as well by the laws as by thecompany we keep. I understand thatsome physicians are not careful to seethat the plainest hygienic rules are carriedout in their own households. Individualdoctors even allow themselvesto get into irregular habits of living andindulge in gross lapses of physical laws.I have heard that at least one medicalman in this State and the wife of anothercontracted smallpox. A sanitaryinspector in one of our principal citiesalso had a severe case of the same disease.He was allowed to qualify for hisofiice, although he had never been vaccinated.Physicians have been heard tosay that they did not "believe in" diphtheriaantitoxin or that certain ideas inregard to sanitation were "all tommyrot."Such assertions tend only to bringinto bold relief the ignorance of thosewho make them, if they do not do actualharm to the cause of health advancement.These things ought not so to be.I sometimes believe that a part of ourmoney and some of the time of ourhealth experts might well be spent ininstructing the doctors themselves inmatters of health. Many a twist andsnarl in their mental and moral fibrecould then be straightened out. Someschools are now given special coursesand granting a degree of Doctor ofPublic Health. These courses will be improvedand enlarged until there aredeveloped specialists in public healthwho shall be able to train others in thework all over the land. This conditioncertainly is coming to pass.The whole affair is a matter of teachingand preaching, and, as in all trueeducation, it is the individual we areafter. In the last analysis we want toget hold of the average man, the mostuninformed man, and tell him how tolive right. Laws are good and we musthave them; but there are some thingsthat can not be legislated into people.I am not now nor have I ever been engagedin public health duty. My worklies in an entirely different field. PerhapsI have no right to present theforegoing criticisms and observations. Ihave done so solely upon the groundthat I am interested in my native Stateand in the health of her people.OUTLINE CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHRONIC DISEASESThe efforts to reduce the toll of cerebralpalsy, epilepsy, diabetes, blindnessand deafness were outlined at the NationalConference on Chronic Disease.Plans were laid for new attacks on theproblems of these ailments and for theirprevention.The three-day Conference, sponsoredby the Commission on Chronic Illnessin cooperation with the U. S. PublicHealth Service and the National HealthCouncil, brought together representativesof the medical profession and layorganizations interested in chronic diseases.The Commission is an independentnational agency founded jointlyby the American Medical Association,the American Hospital Association, theAmerican Public Health Association andthe American Public Welfare Association.A report prepared by the AmericanAcademy for Cerebral Palsy said thatthe prevention of that disease dependsfor the most part on good prenatal andobstetrical care, good pediatric care inthe early months of life, and the preventionof accidents, infections andother causes of brain damage. Early detection,diagnosis, treatment and train-