Report of the Georgia State Board of Health 1904 [1905]

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REPORT.
GEORGIA STATE BOARD OF HEALTH.
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY.
ATLANTA, GA., January rst, 1905.
To His Excellency, Joseph M. Terrell, Goz,ernor of Georgia, Atlanta, Ga.
SIR: Following the instructions of the State Board of Health I have the honor of submitting to you the following report concerning the work accomplished by our department during the past year:
During the year 1904 the State Board of Health has held two regular meetings at which various questions concerning the health of Georgia were discussed by the members-particular attention having been given to the subject of ilmallpox.
The Board at these meetings authorized the fitting up of the office of the department with necessary furniture, and the purchasing of such laboratory apparatus as would be needed in making invetigations to test the purity of water, and for detecting the germs of contagious and infectious diseases. The proper fitting up of the office, and particularly the laboratory, has required much work,

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and has taken considerable time, but I am glad to be able to say that we now have in the main a very well equipped laboratory, and, with some few additions it will be all that could be desired. 'vVe feel that the work already accomplished has been of much value, and are confident that this department will become very quickly of great value to our State.
I regret to report that owing to lack of organization along health lines in Georgia we have, as yet, been unable to make more than a beginning in the gathering of vital statistics, and it would, therefore, be impossible to give any reliable information on this subject at the present time. It will perhaps take many years to secure such concert of action of the local authorities in our State as to perfect this branch of the service.
I would respectfully call your attention to the fact that smallpox continues to prevail over the greater portion of the State. It is impossible to say in just how manv counties the disease has occurred during the past year, but it can be confidently asserted that there have been few that have entirely escaped its ravages. Owing to the fact that prominence is rarely or never given by the press to the fact that smallpox is prevailing in any particular locality, and particularly to the general indisposition to record the fatalities accompanying the disease, the public at large has very little conception of the great number of deaths that have been caused by it; it is furthermore true that a very great number of miscarriages have been the result of this disease and that many persons have become permanently blind as the result of i~.

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Our Board is not in a position to say just how many deaths have been caused by this disease during the past year, but the number is probably not less than from three to four hundred.
The Board would particularly call attention to the fact that vaccination, when properly done, may be said to be without danger-there having been no deaths, so far as we can learn, from this proceeding in Georgia since the establishment of the Board-and that all of the pain, s tffering and death, occasioned by smallpox, could have been entirely prevented had our people generally resorted to this most important of all preventive measures against disease.
Our Board is now preparing and w L snortly send out to the people of the State circulars describing the method by which the more usual infectious diseases are contracted, and giving instructiom as to the best method of prevention. In this list there are included circulars on Malaria, Typhoid Fever, Diphtheria, Tuberculosis, Smallpox, and Infantile Diarrhea.
The Board particularly wishes to emphasize its lack of authority under existing laws in dealing with epidemic diseases-and in order for its usefulness to be commensurate with its expense to the State it is absolutely necessary that sufficient power be conferred on it to empower it to carry out those hygienic precautions which are now universally recognized in all p:uts of the civilized world as being essential to the preservation of health.
The Board partictdarly desires that sufficient authority be conferred upon it to allow it to enforce vaccination in

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communities where smallpox threatens to become epidemic, and until this is done it is highly probable that we will never be entirely rid of this pest.
Respectfully submitted, H. F. HARRIS, Secretary.