Trachoma a Menace to America
NEWS AND COMMENT. The National Committee for the Prevention of Blindness has published a forty-page pamphlet on trachoma, by Gordon B. Berry, which should be given wide circulation among school teachers and the general public. “It comes as a shock,” observes Mr. Berry, “to learn that in the state of Kentucky it is estimated after a careful survey by the U. S. Health Service, that there are 33,000 cases of trachoma, and again, that of the 323,000 Indians in our country fully 20 per cent, or nearly 65,000 are infected. In the state of Ohio only two years ago, among the employees of one of the largest industrial concerns, we read of an outbreak which became so serious that it was necessary to call in the aid of the government before the spread of the infection could be checked and the disease eradicated among those already attacked.”
Trachoma is defined by Surgeon John McMullen of the U. S. Public Health Service as “an inflammation of the conjunctiva, which originates in infection from a trachomatous to a non-trachomatous eye.” The germ organism responsible for trachoma has not yet been found, and the diagnosis must be based upon the clinical picture.
There are figures to show that impaired vision results from trachoma in 50 per cent of the cases treated in hospitals, and blindness in 5 per cent. Of the cases which do not receive hospital treatment, blindness or greatly impaired vision is the almost inevitable result. “It is to be considered as one of the diseases most disastrous in its economic effect upon a people, decreasing not only the material efficiency of those whom it attacks, but also that of the race or people among whom it is prevalent. In addition to the well-nigh constant bodily discomfort of the individual sufferer, the resulting visual impairment cannot fail to reduce greatly his value to society.”
The Public Health Service has in the past few years opened three hospitals in Kentucky, one in Virginia, and one in West Virginia. “A great many of the public schools in Kentucky have been examined for knowledge as to the prevalence of trachoma among the children. In nearly every community where these examinations have been held the trachomatous children have been withdrawn from the schools by order of the Board of Health, and must remain out until treatment has been afforded, and a certificate granted by the attending physician permitting their return.”
By statute or regulation trachoma is a reportable disease in fifteen states. It “provides one of the strongest reasons for the periodic examination of the eyes of all school children. Laws providing for medical inspection annually have already been passed in seventeen states. … It is highly important that communities where the disease has not as yet obtained a foothold, where to exist it must be imported, should protect themselves from its ravages by proper legislation and medical inspection.” (248)
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