PUBLIC HEALTH, NURSING, MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-324
Author(s):  
Floyd M. Feldmann
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Patch Test ◽  
Tuberculin Test ◽  
Preliminary Test ◽  
Outpatient Services ◽  
Medical Social Work ◽  
Striking Change ◽  
Tuberculin Testing ◽  
Health Nursing ◽  
The Individual

As a pediatric problem, tuberculosis has undergone striking change in the past decades, yet few diseases have the complicated interrelationship of personal and community significance that is peculiar to tuberculosis. Management of the tuberculous patient has become largely a matter for hospital and specialized outpatient services, and the individual practitioner has been chiefly concerned with case finding in his own practice. Since the tuberculin test is such an important tool in this respect, the editors thought such a review as presented by Dr. Feldmann of particular importance. A number of controversial points are touched on. In any public health procedure a routine screening test has value in relation to the proportion of positives likely to result. A test which results in more than 50% positive is not very helpful. On the other hand, a test with one positive in 1,000 is probably too expensive. Dr. Feldmann points out the cogent reasons for routine tuberculin testing and the pediatrician will need to consider these reasons in the light of the conditions in his community and the relevant local and state health program. Some may be disturbed by the criticism made of the patch test, yet it is important to recognize its limitations. Failure of the patch test to detect all positives has been well known and most pediatricians have thought it useful chiefly as a preliminary test to find the more sensitive reactors.

PUBLIC HEALTH, NURSING, MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1957 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 1095-1096
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Birth Rate ◽  
Public Health Service ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
Medical Social Work ◽  
National Office ◽  
Health Nursing ◽  
High Level ◽  
Monthly Variations

AS PART of its Monthly Vital Statistics Report, the National Office of Vital Statistics of the U. S. Public Health Service publishes each year an estimate of the most important statistical indices of the previous year. In the March 12, 1957 issue of the Report, Vol. 5, No. 13, Part 1, the annual summary of provisional vital statistics for the year is presented. Monthly variations for the four major indices, Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Infant Mortality, are shown in Figure 1, [See FIG. 1. in Source Pdf.] which compares the data for 1956 with 1955. It is to be noted that the data are provisional and subject to connection. Previous experience, however, indicates little likelihood of more than very minor changes. Births in 1956 climbed to another recordbreaking high with registered births reaching 4,168,000, on a rate of 24.9 pen 1,000 population. Addition of an estimate for unregistered births raises the total to 4,220,000, or a rate of 25.2. The birth rate has maintained a consistently high level for more than a decade, having achieved a high point of 26.6 in 1947. As in previous years, highest rates centered in the south, lowest in the northeastern areas of the country. Deaths in 1956 totaled 1,565,000, a rate of 9.4 per 1,000 population, slightly higher than the rate of 9.3 in 1955 and the low of 9.2 reached in 1954.

PUBLIC HEALTH, NURSING AND MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1949 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 865-865
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
New York ◽  
New England ◽  
Central Area ◽  
General Distribution ◽  
North Central ◽  
Medical Social Work ◽  
South Central ◽  
Health Nursing ◽  
West North Central

A "Measles Year" ACCORDING to the reports of the U.S. Public Health Service, this is a measles year. For example, a total of 15,266 cases were reported for the week of January 29, 1949, compared to a five year median of 6,712. Increases were reported in all geographic divisions except New England and the West North Central area. The largest increases were in the East South Central and South Atlantic areas. Of the total that week, an aggregate of 10,522 cases occurred in the following 12 states: Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama, Texas, Oregon, and California. In contrast to measles, the influenza incidence picture shows an unusually low number of cases. For example, in the week of January 29, 1949, a total of 4,534 cases was reported, compared to a five year median of 14,253. List of Publications Under date of March 1948 the Children's Bureau has published a list of its publications. The list includes all publications of the Children's Bureau issued since 1945 that are available for general distribution; earlier publications of the Bureau that are still available and of current value; some reprints of material published elsewhere but reproduced by or for the Bureau. Pediatricians will find some of these reprints of particular interest. Single copies of the list and of most of the publications can be obtained free from the Children's Bureau, Washington 25, D.C.

PUBLIC HEALTH, NURSING AND MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1953 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 589-592
Author(s):  
WILL C. TURNBLADH
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Juvenile Delinquency ◽  
Executive Director ◽  
Juvenile Court ◽  
Professional Organization ◽  
Juvenile Courts ◽  
Domestic Relations ◽  
Medical Social Work ◽  
Probation And Parole ◽  
Health Nursing

INCREASINGLY, in recent years, pediatricians have been called on to work with the problem of juvenile delinquency. Published statistics on crimes and antisocial activities by children have sometimes been frightening, and loose remarks are often made about drastic remedies being needed to "curb" modern youth. In such a situation, parents naturally turn to their physicians for advice and counsel. Within the community pattern of the attack on juvenile delinquency, the "juvenile court" has a central role. If the ignorance of this editor is any index, pediatricians, in general, know little of the structure, responsibilities, jurisdiction, community relationships, and standards of juvenile courts. It is, for example, both revealing and reassuring to learn that ". . . the court stands in the position of a `protecting parent' rather than a prosecutor. . . ." The National Probation and Parole Association, a nonprofit citizen and professional organization with professional and technical staff, seeks to extend and improve probation and parole services for both children and adults throughout the country, to promote juvenile and domestic relations courts and to develop specialized facilities and programs for the detention of children. At the request of the editor, Mr. Will C. Turnbladh, Executive Director of the Association, has prepared the following interesting and informative article on the background and some of the problems of juvenile courts.

PUBLIC HEALTH, NURSING, MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1957 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 358-361
Author(s):  
Helen M. Wallace ◽  
Amelia Igel ◽  
Margaret A. Losty
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Urban Area ◽  
Inpatient Care ◽  
Foster Home ◽  
Handicapped Children ◽  
Medical Social Work ◽  
Definitive Method ◽  
Health Nursing ◽  
Home Placement

Need for a foster home placement program for handicapped children in an urban area was demonstrated by sending a questionnaire to hospitals and convalescent homes, and by careful review of certain children whose inpatient care was being paid for by the official Crippled Children Program. The outstanding fact was that a significant number of handicapped children were being retained in institutions for social, and not medical, reasons. Agreement was reached among social agencies that a co-ordinated community program for foster home placement of handicapped children was necessary but a definitive method was not evolved nor were adequate funds secured to finance costs.

PUBLIC HEALTH, NURSING AND MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1952 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-81
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Public Health Nursing ◽  
Medical Social Work ◽  
Nursing Organizations ◽  
Health Nursing

Realignment of the national nursing organizations will make it possible for nursing to achieve close coordination of effort and at the same time preserve the diversity which stimulates the growth of various phases of nursing.

PUBLIC HEALTH, NURSING AND MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1952 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-365
Author(s):  
MILDRED WHITE SOLOMON
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Rheumatic Fever ◽  
Extreme Points ◽  
The Other ◽  
Entire Family ◽  
Medical Social Work ◽  
The Family ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Health Nursing

The child with rheumatic fever presents a problem that involves not only himself, his joints and his heart, but the entire family, the parents and the other children as well. All families normally have problems of various kinds; some manage them and some don't. But having a child come down with a serious long-term illness can mobilize these problems, can become the straw that breaks the camel's back. The child and his illness can become the focus not only of the related but all the unrelated and pent-up feelings in the family. The mother who was previously overprotective of her child will react to the illness in one way; the mother who previously neglected her child will react in another way. Some mothers feel that they must give up their former life entirely, friends and social activities, and devote their entire time to watching over the child and doing things for him. They are being "good" mothers. Others give up nothing, refuse to accept the fact that the child has rheumatic fever and completely ignore it. These I know sound like pretty extreme points of view, but I have found that it is not too rare to find mothers fitting into these pictures.

PUBLIC HEALTH, NURSING, MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1957 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 651-656
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Short History ◽  
Medical Social Work ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government ◽  
Health Nursing ◽  
The One ◽  
And Child Health

"IF THE Government can have a department to look out after the Nation's farm crops, why can't it have a bureau to look after the Nation's child crop?" It was 1903 and Miss Lillian Wald, founder of New York's Henry Street Settlement, was writing to Mrs. Florence Kelley of the National Consumer's League. This was the beginning of the 9-year effort, in Congress and throughout the country, which led to the foundation of the Children's Bureau in 1912. Devotion, preseverance and steadfastness of purpose have marked the Bureau's leadership since its establishment, and Dr. Martha May Eliot, recently resigned Chief, has been an outstanding example of the fearless fighter for better care of children. Her resignation, to become Professor of Maternal and Child Health at Harvard University's School of Public Health, put to a close a period of 31 years in the Bureau, years full of striking progress and accomplishments. Martha Eliot's career and the history of the Children's Bureau are closely interwoven; to understand the one it is important to know the other. A happy coincidence is the recent appearance of a short history of the Children's Bureau providing an interesting and factual chronicle, beginning with the first efforts at the turn of the century to establish an agency for children.

PUBLIC HEALTH, NURSING AND MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1949 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 532-533
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Year ◽  
Surgeon General ◽  
The Public ◽  
Live Births ◽  
Medical Social Work ◽  
Health Nursing ◽  
Urban And Rural Areas

A GREATER proportion of births in the United States were delivered in hospitals or institutions in 1947 than in any previous year on record. The number of registered live births rose to a peak of 3,699,940 in 1947, according to a report by Surgeon General Leonard A. Scheele of the Public Health Service. At the same time the proportion occurring in hospitals reached a new high of 84.8%. An additional 10.1% of births in 1947 were attended by physicians outside of hospitals and only about 1 out of 20 births were delivered by a mid-wife or other nonphysician. Since 1935, the first year that data of this kind became available, the percentage of total births delivered in hospitals has more than doubled, rising from 36.9% in 1935 to 84.8% in 1947, according to the report. This increase has been accompanied by a reduction in the proportion of live births delivered by physicians outside of hospitals, from 50.6 in 1935 to 10.1% in 1947, as well as a decline in the percentage delivered by nonphysicians, from 12.5 in 1935 to 5.1% in 1947. The report shows significant progress in recent years in the use of medical and hospital facilities by both the white and nonwhite groups, and by both the urban and rural [See TABLE I in source PDF] population (see Table I). Considerable differences exist between these groups in the extent to which hospitals are used for confinements. In 1947, almost 9 in 10 of the white births occurred in hospitals as compared with about 1 in 2 of the nonwhite births. Only 1.5% of white births were attended by nonphysicians, but almost a third of the nonwhite births were delivered by midwives or other nonphysicians. The differences were less marked as between residents of urban and rural areas (see Table I).

PUBLIC HEALTH, NURSING AND MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1955 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 771-774
Author(s):  
Charles U. Lowe
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Broad Band ◽  
Medical Social Work ◽  
South Central ◽  
Surface Transportation ◽  
Hindu Kush ◽  
Desert Areas ◽  
Health Nursing

Afghanistan is a country in south central Asia, approximately rectangular in shape, with an area estimated at 250,000 square miles. Its borders have been inadequately surveyed and many sections are as yet unvisited by foreigners. The Hindu Kush Mountains divide it roughly from northeast to southwest; they make surface transportation slow and difficult, and along with the desert areas of the southwest sector, reduce the tillable land to less than 20,000 square miles. In spite of this, Afghanistan raises more than enough food to feed its Population and has sufficient surplus to export. Its climate is hot in the summer and very cold in the winter, while rainfall is scarce, rarely averaging more than 11 inches Per year. Racially, 5 ethnic groups make up its population. In the east, and along the Pakistan border, one finds the Pathans. These are tall, frequently fair individuals, claiming descent from both the Greek legions of Alexander and the ancient tribes of Israel. In a broad band running mainly along the Russian border and the Oxus River are the Turkmen, herdsmen and breeders of karakul sheep. South of these, and inhabiting the center of the country from Kabul to Meshed in Persia live the Hazaris, descendents from Genghis Kahn's slaughtering hordes.

PUBLIC HEALTH, NURSING AND MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1950 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 357-361
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Health Authority ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Epidemiologic Study ◽  
The United States ◽  
Medical Social Work ◽  
Average Annual Incidence ◽  
Health Nursing ◽  
Specific Diagnostic Test

GEOGRAPHIC variation in the incidence of poliomyelitis is not well understood and many of the factors involved have not been properly evaluated. A large scale study of two important phases of this problem has recently been reported by Alexander G. Gilliam, Fay M. Hemphill and Jean H. Gerende (Pub. Health Rep. 64:1575 and 1584, 1949). These investigators studied the reported incidence of poliomyelitis in all the 3,095 counties in the United States and analyzed the data chiefly from the standpoint of variations in average annual incidence and the frequency with which epidemics recurred in a given locality. The problem is complicated, as in many other diseases, by lack of a generally available specific diagnostic test. There is usually little question about the manifest cases with paralysis. Abortive and nonparalytic cases, however, constitute a large variable. In any large scale epidemiologic study one is forced to rely on reports of cases as received by the health authority. While there is provision for correcting these reports if subsequent events cause a change in diagnosis it is obvious that in any locality interest and awareness will largely determine the number of cases reported when there is no paralysis. "It appears necessary to emphasize that in most States in this country no distinction is made between paralytic and nonparalytic poliomyelitis in cases officially reported.

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