The establishing of small trachoma hospitals in localities where this
contagious disease of the eyes is prevalent presents the best solution
of the trachoma problem, according to the statement contained in the
annual report of the Surgeon General of the United States Public Health
Service. The Service now has five trachoma hospitals in the three States
of Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia, and so great has been the
number of applicants for treatment that a waiting list has been
established. In the past fiscal year 12,000 cases of trachoma have been
treated, the larger proportion of which were cured, while those in which
a cure was not effected have been greatly improved and rendered harmless
to their associates. The great majority of these trachoma patients were
people who lived in remote sections far removed from medical assistance,
and who, but for the hospital care and treatment provided would have
remained victims of the disease practically the remainder of their
lives.
“When it is considered,” the report of the Service states, “that
thousands of persons suffering with trachoma, a dangerous contagious
disease, would otherwise remain untreated, it is realized how
farreaching results have been obtained through these trachoma hospitals
and the other public health work done in this connection. It would be
impossible to estimate with any degree of accuracy the number of people
who have been saved from contracting this communicable disease by thus
removing these thousands of foci of infection.”
In addition to treating persons with the disease the hospitals have been
used for educational work. Doctors and nurses have visited the homes of
the patients and have explained how to prevent the development and
recurrence of the disease. One thousand three hundred and eight such
visits were made during the year in Kentucky alone. “It has taken some
time,” the report continues, “to educate the people afflicted with this
disease to the importance of cleanliness and the use of simple hygienic
measures in their daily life.” That results have been obtained is
evidenced by the noticeably better observance of hygienic precautions by
those among whom the work has been done.
In addition to the hospital work, surveys were made in sixteen counties
in Kentucky, especially among school children. Eighteen thousand and
sixteen people were examined, 7 per cent being found to have trachoma.
Similar inspections in certain localities of Arizona, Alabama, and
Florida resulted in finding the disease present in from three to six
children out of every hundred. Periodic examination of school children
for the disease and the exclusion of the afflicted from the public
schools, are two of the recommendations the Public Health Service lays
emphasis upon.
One of the special features of the trachoma work was the giving of
lectures and clinics before medical societies in various counties where
trachoma hospitals could not be established. Patients were operated upon
in the presence of physicians and the most modern methods of treatment
demonstrated. Throughout, the purpose has been to stimulate local
interest in taking up the campaign to eradicate trachoma.