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Show "teLLPQX MAS-COST UTAH MOP.E lgM $1,000,000; 16,000 CASES IN 3 YEARS In Fcrron During Epidemic Epi-demic Every Person in tte Town Had the Disease, Dis-ease, Before It Jlan Its Course. It la estlmaitd - that' the prejudice against vaccination, that is so strongly rooted in the minds of the bulk of the residents of this State has cost nearly Jl.000,000 since 18S9. .During1 the past three-years 9281 cases of smallpox were reported to the State Board of Health. The members of the board are- firmly convinced that at least three-fourths as many cases were never reported, but were covered up so thor-Vurfily thor-Vurfily that no record wasver made of That would mean that 6369 cases were tiflfectually hidden, raaklrrg an estimated tlital of 16,241 catse in the State Blnce he disease gained foothold three years Cost of-2Xedteal Treatment. The cost of medical treatment for a case of smalliTOx is, or. average, $30. The cost, therefore, of xthe physicians attendance on JJie 9281 reported cases was $278,430. II the other 6360 cases had received mediteal attention, the cost would have been an additional $208,800,. , , making a total of JJ4S7.230. The average size of a family is five persons. That would imply that there were 1856 families Quarantined, and 1392 families afflicted with the disease, who-were who-were not quarantined The estimated total, number of families incapacitated would therefore be 32'g. II any Wage-Earners. The figures shown by fche State Board' of Health are to the eiTect that of all those quarantined, at hast 60 per cent of the victims were was earners. The number of bread winners who were ln- ' capacitated would thene 'have been 8120. The average length of a quarantine 13 twenty-one days. Had every case been put under quarantine, the total number of days labor lost would have been 170,520; Taking $2.75 per day as ' an average wag rate for all classes in the State, the money lost to the earners would have aggregated the sum of $383,670. There were forty-eight derths from smallpox reported to the State Board of ' Health. The average cost of burial Is $50, making a total of $2400 for burial expenses. The Cost of Quarantine. It is impossible to obtain an -estimate of- the cost of maintaining quarantine - j"n the case"s reported. Every town in Cfah has its Board of Health. These boards have done practically nothing for the past three years but fight smallpox. small-pox. The amount of money expended by theee boards can never be approximated. approxi-mated. The Board of Hearth estimates that I80S bouses have been disinfected at a cost of $3 each, a total of $5568. The money spent merely for the treatment treat-ment and eradication of the disease, asd the money lost to the toilers by reason of their being kept from their labors docs not begin to cover the cost of the pestilence. Epidemics in the State. In the town of Ferron. in Emery county, there were 100 of tie inhabitants inhabi-tants down with the disease at the same time. The town had a population of 250 people AND EVERY PRESIDENT OF THE TOWN HAD THE DISEASE BEFORE IT RAN ITS COURSE. All business was stagnated. No religious re-ligious or other public meetings were held. Schools were closed. The entire town was quarantined. Another example was American Fork. That town was one of the strongest anti-vaccination strongholds in the entire en-tire State at one time. Dr. J. F. Noyes, health commissioner . of American Fork, made the following statement to The Telegram today relative rela-tive to the conditions prevailing at American Fork: "Three hundred and ninety-six cases of smallpox have been reported to me since this epidemic began. By far the greater number of these cases occurred during the past winter. "Of these cases 10 per cent were of the confluent type. There were two deaths from the disease. With the population pop-ulation of the town and neighborhood fixed at 2S00. the percentage of cases as 14.3 of the population. ; ''In all the families quarantined there -Twere only four persons who were not Vaccinated who did not have the disease. dis-ease. It was questionable if these four did not have the disease in a very mild type. Vaccination Saved Them. "Among all the people -quarantined not one who had been vaccinated within the past twenty years . contracted the disease even though they were constantly con-stantly mingling with those who had it. "The people of American Fork had their lesson and It was a bitter one. Where the town was a unit in opposing vaccination three years ago, scarcely one lives there now-who has not been successfully vaccinated." , The case of American Fork is characteristic char-acteristic of nearly every town, hamlet or village in the entire State. Emery county had 600 cases at one time. The disease has spread all. over the State until now a yellow flag would have to be the dimensions of the entire State to cover every case. Hay Become Malignant. The disease has been in a mild form, in nearly all cases, but eanitarists all over the country declare that the old percentage of mortality may return at any time. In Philadelphia the cases were very rlmilar to those here, but they suddenly changed, the dangerous - type super, vened and the percentage of mortality Jumped up to 15 and 20 per cent of all cases.. In all the big cities of the East where vaccination is compulsory, . there are fewer eases of smallpox than here, regardless re-gardless of the density of the population. popula-tion. 1 |