Show let our motto be GOOD HEALTH BY DR LLOYD ARNOLD professor of bacher and d preventive Pre ventu med c ne eners un vers tamu no s college of medicine w waw SCARLET FEVER the past winter has been an epi demic year for scarlet fever in IIII 1111 scarlet fever and other forms of streptococcus infer eions notably red sore throat have been more widely prevalent than at any previous time since reliable rec have been kept scarlet fever in all degrees of in has been widespread among children while adults who have become immune to scarlet fever through having had tl e disease in childhood have developed the sore throat we do not have at this time a public health method of prevent ing scarlet fever as we have of preventing smallpox and diphtheria the chained or bead like cocci 0 of f the so called streptococci family are still man mans s most dreaded bacterial enemy they cause scarlet fever erysipelas child bed fever septic sore throat and blood poisoning scarlet fever Is mild er than it was a decade ao alo but it Is still a serious disease we use two general principles to control contagion one Is preventing the distribution of the causative agent 7 of disease we do this by a variety of means such as filtration and chlorina tion of drinking water proper disposal of sewage the pasteurization of milk the inspection and control of foods and food handlers the whole big field of what we now call sanitary science has been built up around this desire of 0 roan man to pro protect hect himself and his family against the dis dig eases conveyed through water milk and other foods we have made wonderful progress jn in the control of diseases spread through these channels sich as chol era diarrhea typhoid bevet etc these diseases d senses may very frenily trani ly be terme 1 filth diseases s nee nce hev are caused by germs which are in the excreta or the sick person the well person be comes s fk ch by swallowing the germs the dysentery outbreak that recently occurred in chicago belongs to this group regardless of wl 1 I eie how and why one of these d ceases occurs from our stanope sta nopo nt it Is a filthy contain nation of food now as to the second method of con trolling contagion this Is by vacel nation wl ich mal es people immune to the causative agent one should look at this general problem of d s ease from two ants one the host and the other the invader you and I 1 are the hosts the germs are the invaders all germs want to live the same as you and I 1 germs grow rapidly we have some ways of preN preventing enting scarlet fever these ways are not so good nor u so efficient as we should like it is possible to vaccinate against scar sear let fever by injecting doses of vaccine rive rhe separate injections have been rec mended om as the best method before be ng vaccinated however one should have a sk n test done to see if vacel nati nation 0 n is necessary after the course of f five lve injections another sun skin test should be made to make sure that thea the vaccine has been effective and ammu anity established th s requires seven punctures in all the length of time a person Is immune to scarlet fe fever feer er Is still in question this method has proved successful in preventing scar sear let fever in board ng schools and with other groups of children con trolled conditions vaccination against scarlet fever it must be admitted la Is not so successful as Is vace nation ag dinst diphtheria anyone recently recovered from an attack of scarlet fever has disease pre venting substances in his or herbowy her body blood from such a recovered person can be injected into a child during the early stages of scarlet fever and the disease will run a short mild course sometimes the use of this convalescent serum as the blood from a recently recovered case Is called will cause a prompt d arance of the fever skin rash and sore throat scarlet fever antiserum anti like thena theria antiserum is available for treat ing cases of scarlet fever but like the preventive vaccination methods the scarlet fever antis antiserum eruin does not work so well as the diphtheria antiserum scarlet fever like most of the con diseases of childhood begins as a sore throat TI tie e diagnosis Is usually made upon the type of skin rash appearing a few bays after the onset of the sore throat and fever the disease Is contagious from the be g nning of the sore throat stage even before scarlet fever Is established in the diagnosis the cont eglon Is spread by droplets from the throat and not in the peeling skin as many laymen believe one should try to guard children against contracting the d sease bartic young children ninety out of each hundred deaths from scarlet fe ver occur in children between two and ten years of age while scarlet fever Is not a major cause of death now recovered cases may have permanent and irreparable kidney damage scarlet fever lingered longer this spring than it has been in the habit of doing this leads c health au all thor tie tic q to believe that the dise disease asee may have an birly 1 flare up in the com comm ing winter a western newspaper union |