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Show 1 UTAH'S DISREGARD OF HEALTH. H The last monthly bulletin of the state board of health is a H severe criticism of Utah's lax methods in sanitation. As an intro- M ductory to the monthly report, the bulletin says: M "To one who has studied the subject of disease prevention, it M is depressing to read the monthly serial story of suffering and death H in Utah, of which the accompanying report for January in the latest Hl installment. .To 'the total of 441 deaths recorded there should be H added fifty, which- is the average of report3 received each month Hl too late to be included in the Bulletin. Not less than two-fifths of HT these deaths were an unecessary and preventable sacrifice. In oth- H er words, 200 persons were doomed to die because of others' ignor- H ance or carelessness or criminal disregard for their neighbor's rights. H Homes throughout the state were blighted by the untimely taking off H of children, of men in the prime of life, the sole support of their Hj families, and of mothers who could be ill-spared. H "Pasteur declared, and the opinion is shared by all sanitary Hl authorities, that it is within the power of man to banish parasitic H diseases from the world. By parasitic diseases are meant the so-call- H ed germ diseases, including typhoid fever, tuberculosis, pneumonia, H the infectious diseases of childhood, etc., which cause more than B two-fifths of all deaths. ,- Hl i ' "In addition to the sorrow and suffering, the money loss in- H I volved in this needless sickness and death is appalling. A low esti- H7 1 mae of the value of the 200 lives, compared with their earning H capacity, and not counting the expense of sickness, shows an aggre- H gate loss for the month amounting to $500,000.00. The public apathy H displayed in the face of these facts is one of the unsolved mysteries H of the human mind. Does any one believe that no more attention H "would be aroused if the enormous monthly los8 were caused by a M preventable disease occurring in hogs or cattle? H "Briefly stated, it is now known that all communicable diseases, H the deadliest foes of the human, race, are caused by living organisms m commonly known as germs, which originate outside of the body, m that these germs, are given off from the person affected with the m disease, and if permitted, either by direot .contact .or .indirectly m through air or water or food which has been contaminated by the H ( patient, may gain entrance to the bodies of others, and that it is m i entirely feasible to prevent this danger by methods that are Bimple m practical and effective. .The only question left for the people of m , Utah to solve is, how long they shall allow public indifference and M ignorance of these facts to cost them so dearly. H Reviewing the figures of death rates in Utah, as compared with mt the five-year average in United States registration area we find that m t scarlet fever and typhoid fever are out of proportion to all other m j diseases, the death rate being 13.5 and 35.9 respectively, while in the M registration area it is only 10 for scarlet fever and 29 for typhoid H Here we have the best of water supply and all natural condi- H turns for health, yet these two diseases, among the easily prevent- M able, are claiming more victims than elsewhere. |
