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Show 14 REPORT-OF TEE SECRETABY OF THE INTERIOR ments can be carried out to place this service on a more efficient basis, to reduce the turnover of medical and nursing personnel, still unduly high, and to create other factors which will provide a well oalanced and equalized medical and surgical service for the Indian wards of the Government. Trachoma, tuberculosis, and the diseases of infancy and childhood continue to be the outstanding health problems of this race. It is felt that progress is being made, particularly in trachoma control, through the establishment of trachoma and nontraehoma schools and the closer delineation of the trachoma activities of the special physicians. The following additional hospitals were constructed during the year and opened at the beginning of the new year: At the Albuquer-que School, N. Mex., with 60 beds; Chin Lee, k.an,d T ohatchi, N. Mex., schools with 15 beds each; Taos Pueblo, N. Mex., with 12 beds; and Havasupai Hospital, k.w,ith 6 beds. The new hospital at Choctaw Agency, Miss., was opened during April, with 25 beds, and nearly 100 patients were admitted up to June 30. A 36-bed general hospital was opened at the Western Navajo Agency, Ariz. Plans were also made for the conversion of the Kayenta BoarLrdmg School within the Western Navajo Reservation into a sanatorium with 40 beds for tuberculosis and 10 for general patients. Authority was received during the past year for the installation of X-ray machines and other laboratory facilities in our general and tuberculosis hospitals. Increased facilities are being provided in our general hospitals for the treatment of advanced cases of tuberculosis not suitable for or unwilling to receive treatment in the established sanatoria. The nursing service, which was increased considerably during the year, 21 hospital nurses having been added to the staff, will require additional numerical strength before being placed on anything like an adequate basis. The steps already taken will tend considerably toward reduction of the high turn-over in this personnel. The public-health nursing work is being better organued, and it is felt that the quality of this service is showing considerable improve- 1 ment. Twelve new positions of this nature have been established. During the year there has been an unusually high incidence of both measles and influenza, particularly with reference to the Indian population of the southwest. This, both directly and indirectly, is a factor of considerable importance in the lighting up of old ease8 of tuberculosis and in increasing the susceptibility of the younger popu- B lation. The effects of an undue prevalence of these two diseases will influence tuberculosis cases for many years. From data thus far received indications point to a decrease in the number of cases of trachoma found duripg this fiscal |