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.