Radio mirror (Nov 1937-Apr 1938)

V?G |||«€>*aV the War Against Social Diseases BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN DECORATION IY EDGAR McGRAW 4 human beings, simply because it is so closely associated with the maintenance of our moral standards, discussion has been inhibited and control thereby made more difficult. Surgeon General Thomas Parran of the United States Public Health Service should be accorded the credit for bringing the control of these diseases more prominently to the public mind. He led in opening sound scientific discussion of these diseases as a means to permanent decrease in our overwhelming rates. There are, no doubt, 400,000 to 600,000 new cases every year. His book, "Shadow On The Land," tells the facts simply and directly. Again and again the people have been told about the havoc that is wrought by the venereal diseases. All of us ought to know that there is not just one, there are several diseases affecting the organs and tissues of men and women concerned in childbirth or in intimate personal relations. Most of these diseases are spread by human contacts. Occasionally, these infections are acquired innocently. There is the innocent infection of the eyes of the child at birth, against which most intelligent governments have taken action by the demand that physicians and midwives, at the time of childbirth, use a simple antiseptic substance in the eyes. Occasionally the lip is infected by promiscuous kissing. There are rare instances of infection transmitted innocently, as was the case when a policeman was bitten on the thumb by a woman who was resisting arrest. The vast majority of cases of infection with the venereal diseases, however, represent intimate personal contacts. Infections perhaps acquired outside the marriage tie are transmitted in the ordinary course of life by the father to the mother, or by the mother to the father, or by the mother to the child. Those entrusted with the protection of these loved ones thus do harm to the very people whom they would most desire to protect. Perhaps one hundred years ago, or even fifty years ago, silence regarding these disorders might have been warranted. In those days the diseases were often considered incurable. Scientific medicine was not in possession of the necessary knowledge to control or to cure. We did not know the causative organisms. We did not recognize the methods of transmission. We did not have available certain methods of diagnosis nor the vast armamentarium of drugs and other methods of treatment now available. The little organisms, or germs that cause these diseases, are tiny indeed but the damage they can do is tremendous. Two thousand of the little corkscrew-like parasites laid end to end barely make an inch. Seen under a microscope, they are fascinating; in a human body they are devastating. They invade every tissue. They break down the blood vessels and they injure the mechanism of the heart. Perhaps ten per cent of heart disease, which is our leading cause of death, may be ascribed to their depredations. They soften the brain and help to keep the insane asylums populated. As many as three out of every one hundred babies born are said to be contaminated at the time of their birth. Unless these diseases are promptly treated, they are likely to sicken and die. And the little round germs that cause the second great venereal disease also invade the joints, the heart, eyes or the spine and make out of the human being a pitiful mass of human wreckage. Today scientific medicine, combining its efforts with those of public health officials, is beginning an organized, sustained campaign against the venereal diseases, a campaign in which the public is participating on a tremendous scale. Throughout the country, women's clubs, the junior chambers of commerce, and similar organizations are aiding in dissemination of knowledge. Intelligent people are voluntarily submitting themselves to Wassermann tests as (Continued on page 69) JT * .;