p. 16 | The Hookworm Disease by W. A. R.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 3, 1910

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 9.

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The Hookworm Disease

By W. A. R.

What Are You Going to Do About It?

IN order to refresh our minds, let us rehearse a few of the facts about this disease:—

It prevails in sandy regions throughout the Southern States.
From twenty-five to eighty per cent of the people in these regions are infected.
Deaths from the disease are many; sickness, distress, and incapacity are appalling, and the monetary loss occasioned is enormous.
The disease is easily detected, and the diagnosis may be absolute.
Infection comes through insanitary habits.
It is easily preventable — hygienic cleanliness is the means.
It is easily curable — simple medication is the remedy.
The hookworm disease should and could be eradicated in a year. Shall we do it?

An Appeal

It is stated on statistical authority that four persons die of preventable diseases in the United States every time we breathe. Every year the sacrifice in this way through ignorance and neglect equals in number the population of such a city as Baltimore or St. Louis.

It is to our credit, however, that attention to hygienic living has resulted in diminishing materially the death-rate in many of our most common diseases. During the past thirty years the death-rate from typhoid fever has been reduced fifty-four per cent. The diphtheria death-rate has been diminished eighty per cent. Tuberculosis in the same time has decreased forty-one per cent in New York. Similar reduction has been accomplished in the mortality from other diseases.

From these facts we are led to believe that with proper regulations and education a much greater reduction could be accomplished in the death-rate in our country.

In no disease is there greater possibility for gratifying results than in hookworm disease. As pointed out, the disease may be eradicated entirely if all the people can be educated up to the point of effectual sanitation and proper treatment.

The appeal I wish to make is to our own Seventh-day Adventist people. We make high claims of holding advanced ideas in healthful living. In fact, this has been an important part of the peculiar message we bear to the world at this time. Health principles are a part of the everlasting gospel. It is our privilege to be the head and not the tail in advocating and practising these health principles. We have not been so active in this matter as we might have been in the past, but there is an opportunity within our grasp now to redeem the time, and to demonstrate our determination to set a right example, and to join this fight against this devastating disease. It is a case where the people must join the physicians in a united effort against a common foe. Little can be done unless the co-operation of all the people can be secured. I appeal to all our people to lend their efforts in every way possible to assist in this matter.

You will want to know how to do this:—

Observe sanitary rules in disposing of all excreta from the bowels. Use only the washout or dry-closet system.
Influence everybody you can to follow this rule.
Ascertain if you yourself or any of the members of your family have the disease, and if so, undergo proper treatment for it. Do not neglect this. It may mean a restoration to health to you or yours. Do it now.
Influence all others whom you can to do likewise.
Become as well informed on this disease as you possibly can.

A Proposition

I want to urge that every one of our people (1) shall present himself to a competent physician for examination for this disease. If for any reason you can not do this, or are too timid to submit to such an examination as is necessary, (2) write me particulars, with reasons for not seeing a physician, and I will tell you how to secure an absolute diagnosis as to this disease without inconvenience, embarrassment, or expense to yourself. If the disease is recognized, of course you will want to have treatment for the same. You can then consult your own family physician, or if you have no one of choice, I will recommend a reliable physician in your own locality, if you so desire.

I am much in earnest over this matter, and hope not a person of our membership in the Southern States will overlook this matter. You may be a benefactor by taking up the matter properly and promptly.

I trust that there will be a unanimous response on the part of our people in the South to this proposition. Any one desiring to write me should address me at 2 Iowa Circle, Washington, D. C.

W. A. R.