OCR Text |
Show I HEALTH. A determined fight has been made for preventive measures agniust disease on Indian reservations. $he greatest problems confronting us are,tuberculosis, trachoma, and a high infant mortality. Medical supervisors visit'hs frequently as possible each agent:? and school, make medical inspections, and suggest remedies for unhealth-ful and insanitary conditions. Thespecial physicians are principa!ly engaged in eye work, all being ophthalmologists. They are con-stantly on the road, performing the various eye operations required, instituting campaigns against trachoma, and instructing local phy-sicians in the best treatment of that disease and other eye affections found among the Indians. The field dentists visit the schools and do the requisite dental work for theschool children. They have in many cases succeeded in doing work among the adult Indians who are beginning to realize the importance of such attention. The duties of the school and agency physicians are extensive and include the general practice of medicine and surgery. The field matrons are doing a wonderfully helpful work; they are the good Samaritans of the Indian Service, and many more than our funds will now permit could be employed to great advantage. The treatment of trachoma is difficult, but the problem in the schools is now nearly solved. The number of these cases has in mo& places been materially reduced by the curing of disease in the older pupils, yet the introduction of new cases into the schools in the primary grades continues to some extent. his will continue until greater inroads can be made on the foci of infection in the homes of the older Indians. Since the instdlatiou 'in the schools of the Pullman towel system, the segregation of acute trachomatous cases, and the institution of regular treatment, new cases seldop appear except through outside infection. . Among the older Indiaw the elimination of trachoma has not been accomplished, but progress is everywhere apparent. Tuberculosis is an ever present problem, and the Indian has no racial immunity to tubercular infection. The records show that a large per cent of the Indian mortality from tuberculosis is among children, and evidence is accumulating that the primary infection occurs in childhood. Among young children under 2 years of age the appearance of tuberculosis is almost inevitably the precursor of a fatal issue. We are therefore strenuously exerting our efforts to protect the infants and children, which is being done through a campaign of education looking to better methods of caring for them. |