Show War On Hookworm Is Planned in Kentucky tit t r 1 A T zi i Wr J i i j I 1 r 1 I I vj 2 d 1 I q I SIf tit t t f fI I rj r rr r- r I r 4 k 4 wI 4 a. a S id wt r Ott f r idy t A 7 Jr f ss a t ri a M l t- t tr i I Upper picture shows in ht nd advanced stage of hookworm J lower IlcI pie plc- I tore lure aho bo s typical mountain home homa where re hookworm r I r Special to Tho The Herald Lexington n Ky July 6 It S.-It It has re recently re- re been announced that tho i International Congress of lly- lly and Demography which meets In tn Washington In tn September will take f up what Js is Just now the newest and I most dangerous disease epidemic over Known in Kentuck Kentucky This Is the hookworm hookworm hook hook- worm of oC which It Is estimated there thero are arc cases In tho the Kentucky Kentuck rural i districts This Is the most complex problem before the Kentucky state board of health at the tho present time Startling facts havo recently been learned by the board which Is Investigating In In- In tho the problems connected with the tho great feat spread of hookworm and I pellagra Investigations have shown tho the presence of tho the disease in twenty counties In twenty eight y rier per cent of tho the specimens collected at rant random ran ran- dom by one physician the tho hookworm bookworm 1 lH I has been detected This according to the state board of oC healt health l. l Indicates as asI I great reat an infection In Kentucky as has been found In Virginia and other southern states tIt t It has only recently been realized that the tho hookworm existed to an any ver very I great extent In the state In tho the fall II i of oC 1910 the surgeon general of oC the i f United States arm army announced that a large largo proportion of oC the tho recruits from Kentucky Kentuck Infected This created such interest throughout this state that an nn appropriation was secured I from the tho legislature and the investigation tion which has never ceased since then has lias demonstrated that In twenty counties In different parts of at tho state state state-In In fact In every county where whore an Investigation has been made the tho disease exists Children and young youns- adults are arc the I gr greatest auff sufferers but persons of an any ago may become infected Cases Cues havo have been found in very cry young children and in very old men in Kentuck Kentucky While It is truo true that It is chiefly amon among peo peo- pIa of ot po poor r financial conditions living J in surround surroundings that the It 1 disease is found because the opportunity opportunity for tor infection Is So much greater greater cases eases are found among those who are aro more furtunato financially and tho the better educated classes Blame Condition The state board of ot health declares that tho the general disregard for sanitation sanitatIon sanita sanita- tion In the country and nd small towns and tho the outskirts of ot the larger ones is responsible for tor nearly all cases of of Ot bookworm disease It finds however that more than thirty per cent of tho students in certain southern colleges college s are arc Infected and In some of oC the tho cornmon common common com corn mon schools ninety five per cent Several Several Several Sev Sev- eral schools h have havo Vo shown Infection o of oC t ten to forty per cent Hookworm disease is caused b by a z small round worm about one half Inch t long and about as thick as an ordinary Y hairpin Tho The American species varlen varies varle Ys s In n color from a dead white to a n dirt dirty AT gray sometimes red from ingested l blood The hookworm patient Is a t pitiful object The Tho first symptoms show In In- In t tense tenso anemia As the disease takes g further hold tho the sufferer swells In all parts of oC the bad body the tho skin becomes become s past pasty tho the face tace loses Its look of Intel Intel- I l In children growth is stunted r and tho the victim looks prematurely aged Eating Clay a n R For years In different parts of Ken Ken- t tucky there h have Ve been d described describe s 1 nf people n L ere of oC loathsome appearance and were pitied even by their neighbors wh who o dl did not dream that their peculiar ar appearance ap ap- and th their lr appetite for the clay that Is fa found In U the c mountain sections sections sec sec- of the state were caused by a disease Tho The board of oC ht health alth however how how- e ever ver has hns found that these people were all aU victims of the hookworm It Is a n a peculiarity p of at tho the hook hookworm sufferers sufferer s that they aro are Inveterate devourers de o of 1 all sour substances lemons pickles salt popper pepper sour milk chalk clay tiny ashes tobacco mortar and plaster sand Band gravel sticks decayed wood mood paper and cloth being some fomo of the tho delIcacies del del- appealing to the depraved ap ap- petite Extreme lassitude is a never falling first symptom then tho the swelling beins be be- g gins ins and continues to together ether with the until tho the victim dies Unlike pella pellagra ra the state board of at h health declares that hookworm can be cured where treatment Is la given Iven early earh enough h. h To this end a wide state c campaign has been started and will bo be pushed until every overy part of tho the state has been covered Where tho the patient Is financially unable to for pa pay treat treat- ment mont It Is expected that the state will settle tho the bills biBs As is the caso cage with pellagra the hookworm Is 19 most prevalent in themore tho the more sparsely settled mountain com com- In ever every case examined It has been found that the tho home of ot the victim has been Inadequately fitted with sanitary appliances and the board of ot health officially states that tho the real preventive of or hookworm lIe lies in cleanliness and proper sanitation |