HOW'S 



YOUR HEALTH? 



By L. H. SIMERL 



"Betty Ann Jones, pretty 8-year-old 

 daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Adam 

 Jones of Pleasant View Farm, won 

 the county health contest last week." 



"Funeral services were held yester- 

 day for %-year-old Mary Jane 

 Brown, only daughter of Mr. and 

 Mrs. John Brown, who live three 

 miles north of town." 



THUS your newspaper tells the stories 

 of joy and sorrow brought by good 

 health and the lack of it. 



Betty Ann enjoys near perfect health 

 because she has had proper food, has 

 been immunized against preventable 

 communicable diseases and has had pe- 

 riodical physical examinations leading to 

 the correction of physical defects. 



Little Mary Jane died of typhoid 

 fever, a disease which can be prevented 

 by immunization and proper sanitary pre- 

 cautions. Her life might have been 

 saved if the county had had an efficient 

 health department. 



Perhaps your county is one of the 

 nine in Illinois which have already acted 

 to establish a county health department. 

 If not, then it is likely that many per- 



Here ore some pictures from the Morgan 

 County Health Department. First picture 

 shows an iniant being weighed at the 

 Well Child conierence. Immunization as 

 a senrice to children enrolled in Well 

 Child conferences is shown in second pic- 

 ture. Third picture shows vision testing 

 program in public schools. 



sons in your county are considering the 

 advisability of establishing one. In any 

 event, you will want to know what serv- 

 ices a county health department can pro- 

 vide, how one is established, and how 

 much one would cost. 



A county health department is a part 

 of the county government which devotes 

 its attention to protecting the health of 

 the people of the county. Its activities 

 are largely regulatory, educational and 

 promotional. 



The county health department does 

 not engage in the practice of medicine 

 or in social work. It does not compete 

 with or replace either practicing physi- 

 cians or welfare workers. It does, how- 

 ever, cooperate with physicians, dentists, 

 hospitals, schools, welfare agencies and 

 other organizations concerned with the 

 protection of health. 



A county health department is re- 

 sponsible for the enforcement of state 

 and local health laws and regulations. 

 It is responsible for the quarantine of 

 cases of communicable disease. It in- 

 spects and enforces laws and regulations 

 concerning public water supplies and 

 sewage disposal systems. It inspects and 

 enforces health regulations regarding 

 restaurants, food processing plants, swim- 

 ming pools, tourist camps, etc. This reg- 

 ulatory work is carried out by the chief 

 medical officer, usually with the assist- 

 ance of a sanitary officer. 



A large part of the activities of the 

 county health department are educational 



Height and weight — an index of growth. 

 This seryice. together, with record keeping 

 and interpretation, can be part of your 

 school program, with the cooperation of 

 your local health department. 



■ .: :. ■• ■'::■■' -I ■'- r~- 



and promotional in nature. In this work 

 the department "cooperates with public 

 schools, civic groups. Farm Bureaus, 

 Home Bureaus and other organizations in 

 the community interested in health pro- 

 tection. 



The county health department carries 

 on an educational program to secure the 

 immunization of infants and young chil- 

 dren against diphtheria, typhoid fever, 

 small pox, whooping cough and other 

 preventable diseases. 



The public health nurses of the de- 

 partment, upon invitation from the fam- 

 ily physician, visit families which have 

 cases of communicable disease and dem- 

 onstrate procedures which will prevent 

 the spread of the disease to other mem- 

 bers of the family or to other persons of 

 the communit)'. 



These nurses also carry oji educational 

 programs with expectant mothers and 

 the mothers of young infants. They 

 teach and demonstrate methods of proper 

 care of young infants and the prepara- 





by 



L A. A. RECORD 



