OCR Text |
Show i'ngly there has been established at Toledo, Iowa, an additional sana-torium +th a capacity of 65 patients, which by reason of its location will be admirably adapted for the treatment of children with incipi-ent tuberculosis from the northernmost reservations. Besides offer-ing them the advantages of sanatorium treatment, it will give them the benefit of a change of climate without taking them too far from home. As at the other sanatoria, a school will be provided for chi-dren able to take advantage of it. The force of ophthalmologists has been increased to six, each of whom has been assigned to a separate district in which he will have supervision of the eye work, it being the plan to have a qualified operator within reach of each agency physician. These surgeons will be important factors in controlling the spread of trachoma. Trachoma with an incidence approaching 70 per cent was reported among the Five Civilized Tribes, presenting such an alarming situ-ation that an assistant medical supervisor was directed, during the fiscal year 1913, to make a survey of the whole Five Tribes country with a view of determining the medical and sanitary needs of the Indians. During the year epidemics of certain of the more common infec-tions diseases occurred on many reservations-diphtheria, smallpox, scarlet fever, and measles occurring most frequently. Diphtheria visited seven reservations during the year, with but one death in 54 cases. This unusually low death rate is due to the close observa-tion under which the school children are kept by the physicians, the .immediate use of diphtheria antitoxin, and the mild form in which the disease appeared. Smallpox occurred in a mild form excepting in the Five Tribes, where it appeared in a most virulent type. Indians generally sub-mitted cheerfully to vaccination by and followed the instructions of service physicians. Typhoid fever, a disease formerly so rare among Indians that many service physicians believed that there existed a racial immu-nity, is occurring with greater frequency, due in all probability to the closer contact of the Indians with the white race. Sufficient oases have already occurred and these have .been so widely dis-tributed among the tribes that it can be safely said that the Indian is not naturally immune to this disease. By especially prepared lectures illustrated by stereopticon slides and motion pictures, delivered to Indians on the reservations during the past few years, appeal has been made direct to them to improve their living conditions, and they have been taught by this means how to guard against disease. These lectures have been well at-tended, and their influence for good has been great. |