Typhoid fever in Michigan in 1890 : a summary from reports by health officers, clerks and physicians / compiled under the direction of the secretary of the Michigan State board of health.

  • Michigan. Department of Health.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Typhoid fever in Michigan in 1890 : a summary from reports by health officers, clerks and physicians / compiled under the direction of the secretary of the Michigan State board of health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    Alvinza C. Merrill, M. D., Health Officer of Harbor Springs, Emmet county, reports, relative to an outbreak of typhoid fever, as follows:— The attending physiciEin did not inform me, nor did he report the cases to me as he shonld have done. In reply to the question What exceptions were there to the complete accomplishment of the disinfection of excreta, boiling of water, etc., in an outbreak of typhoid fever, N. D. Lee, M. D., Health Officer of Saginaw, West side, wrote:— None, when it was reported by a physician; bat they do not report more than half the cases. 1 get more than half of the cases through newspapers, after they are dead or well. F. M. Kerry, Health Officer of Benton Harbor, Berrien county, reported in regard to an outbreak of the disease:— Three families were reported by well founded rumor. In two of these deaths occurred. The physi- cians did not report cases. My attention would be called to the fact by rumor or funeral notice. Physi- cians claimed disease was typho-malarial or bilious remittent fever. Have not had a case of typhoid reported to me by a physician. N. B. Sherman, M. D., Health Officer, Waterloo township, Jackson county, reporting in regard to typhoid fever, wrote:— I have learned in a casual way of the death of Jas. Kowe, Mrs. Hall, and Henry Arty. The attending physicians were Dr. Rowe, of Stockbridge; Dr. Condon, Munith; Dr. Raymond, Grass Lake. These cases have not been reported to me. * * * * Possibly these Drs. before mentioned do not understand their duty. In studying the effects of efforts of health officers for the restriction and prevention of typhoid fever, and of the difficulties experienced by some of them in carrying out the methods recommended by the State Board of Health to that end; it is interesting to note the difference in the reported numbers of cases of sickness and of deaths, from this disease, in outbreaks where local health officers were enabled to enforce isolation and disinfec- tion, and in those outbreaks in which, for any reason, those restrictive measures were neglected. The diagram on page 222 graphically illustrates this difference, and shows that in outbreaks relative to which the reports state that isolation and disinfection were enforced, there occurred 1.97 cases and 0.32 of one death per outbreak; whereas in those outbreaks where isolation and disin- fection were neglected, there were 6.58 cases of sickness and 0.96 of one death per outbreak; or about three times as many cases and deaths in out- breaks in which isolation and disinfection were neglected, as there were in outbreaks where those restrictive measures were enforced. It therefore seems probable that if proper restrictive measures had been adopted in all the 330 outbreaks of this disease which were reported to this office during the year, with results similar to those obtained in the above-mentioned outbreaks where isolation and disinfection were enforced (1.97 cases and 0.32 of one death per outbreak), there would have occurred only 650 c^-ses of sickness and 106 deaths from this disease in the State during the year, instead of the 1,924 cases and 304 deaths which actually occurred in those outbreaks which were reported; and a saving to the State of 1,274 cases of sickness and 198 lives would have been effected. This showing seems to present a forcible argument in favor of the adop- tion of the preventive measures above referred to, and a strong plea for the cooperation of all the people, in the efforts of health officers to stamp out this preventable disease.