History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

Contagious Diseases 241field of public health had scarcely been touched. While aerial transmissionof infection among the so-called common contagious diseases seems to havebeen accepted as an undisputed fact, no mention of medical aseptictechnicin the prevention and control of acute infectious diseases is found in theliterature of the time. Smallpox was the only disease against which it waspossible to establish an artificial active immunity. Even so, there has neverbeen a compulsory vaccination law in the State of Illinois, and long aftei1900 there were still many people who apparently chose smallpox in preferenceto vaccination. Nor was there any law then which required the useof silver nitrate in the eyes at birth to forestall the possibility l ophthalmianeonatorum. The number of children who lost their sight in those dayswill probably newer be known but it was considerable.Looking back through the years when contagious diseases ran rife, it isnot so surprising that the death rates were high as it is remarkable that sogreat apercentage of children reached adult life.Epidemic DiseasesActive immunization against diphtheria did not come into general practiceuntil many years after Theobald Smith, Chief of the United StatesBureau of Animal Industry, reported on his studies in immunity. In themeantime, diphtheria continued to be one of the chief causes of death inchildren. At times entire families were wiped out by it. Fatality ratesoften ranged from 40 per cent upward. Diphtheria antitoxin was not discoveredby Behring until 1890 and was not freely available in Illinois before1900.From time to time during the last century, scarlet fever occurred infcraves of virulent and mild epidemics. After a prolonged quiescence earlyin the century, the virulent form appeared in 1830. It continued for morethan 40 years to be one of the leading causes of death in children, and formore than 25 years into the 20th century it still continued to present manyserious problems.Before 1900, the etiologic factor in scarlet fever was a matter of dispute.When it was finally recognized that streptococci were constantly presentin the disease, the contention was that these organisms accounted for thecomplications but were not responsible for the original infection; that theywere, in fact, secondary invaders. Not until the work of Drs. George F. andGladys H. Dick in1924 in Chicago was a specific hemolytic streptococcusconclusively established as the causative agent of scarlet fever.Toward the close of the nineteenth century, kidney and heart complicationsin scarlet fever were greatly feared. Suppurative otitis media occurredin at least 14 per cent of the cases and was frequently followed by mastoiditisand death. Lateral sinus thrombosis and at times meningitis also