TERRIBLE MENACE.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17627, 2 December 1922, Page 18

TERRIBLE MENACE.

EPIDEMICS IN EUROPE. CONFERENCE AT WARSAW. An All-European League of Nations Sanitary Conference was in session m Warsaw during September The com, tries attending it were besides the European members of tTie League, Ger many, Soviet Russia, Soviet Lkrarne Hungary, and Turkey. In add-on the non-European members ot we Council-namely, Brazil, China, and Japan—had been invited. The Conference, which was attended by representatives of the public health authorities of the countries concerned, iftd been convened by the Poll* Government (states a correspondent in the -Manchester Guardian ). i" to step was taken after the unanimous approval of the Council had been secured to the suggestion that-the League ot .Nations saould support tho convening of a European conference to consiaei the increasingly grave situation m Eastern Europe and concert measures ior checking the spread of the typhus, relapsing lever, choiera, and other diseases that, were ravaging Russia today. As is well known, the League of Nations has been co-operating on a large scale with the health authorities of Polland during the last year, throughthe League Epidemics Commission. This Commission was set up by the Council in pursuance of a resolution of the first Assembly. As first constituted, the Epidemics Commission was composed of four members. Its head, Dr. Norman White, a Bi itish. public health officer with long Indian experience, was appointed by the Council. Of the remaining three members, one, Colonel Dr. Gauthier ; of the French Army Medical Service, was appointed by the Council; the second. Major Fitzhugh, was a nominee of the' League of Red Cross Societies (Major Fitzhugh, on the completion of the work for which he was appointed, has left the Commission, which, however, still keeps in close touch with the League of Red Cross Societies); the third member, Di\ Rajchman, is a member of the Standing Committee of the League Health Organisation and director of this organisation's secretariat, which forms a section of the Secretariat, General. The Epidemics Commission therefore disposes of considerable machinery and many channels to get its wont done, and its wishes and suggestions communicate to the Governments and made known to the public opinion of the Mates which are members of the League.

As a result of the resolutions and appeals of the, first and second Assemblies and Council, various Governments conJttm 5 of wmething over £idU,UUO for the anti-epidemic campaign and promised as much more, i-he League of lied Cross Societies, whose backing throughout has been invaluable, contributed £IO,OOO, be-o'-^n 280 ' 000 suits of underwear and ob,ooo pairs of rubber gloves. The Campaign in Poland.

With these means at its disposal the League Epidemics Commission began its international campaign against epiuenncs late in 1920. Tins campaign for epidemiological and financial reasons was undertaken in Poland as a beginning. The commission worked with the Polish health authorities, to whom it delivered the medical stores, eoap, clothing and motor transport so crymgiy needed and so diifk-mt to procure at the outset of the Campaign. In addition the liipidemics Commission wag auio to deliver • hi'ty SU-bea hospital units, completely equipped, to the .Polish Government, ana render much miscellaneous aid m various The whole direction of the anti-epidemic campaign, as well as the management and staffing of the hospitals, bathing, deiousing, medical and transport services, was undertaken by the Polish health authorities, for whose administration and policy the Epidemics Commission, m its recent report to the council and members of the league, expresses the highest admiration. As is well known, typhus and relapsing fever are spread oy lice. Therelore, these diseaee are endemio in countries where there are populations with a. sufficiently low standard oi living to harliour iice in large numbers, and become epidemic when these populations are moved from place to place in large masses, in more or less insanitary conditions, and especially when administrative machinery, public sanitation, etc., break down. This explains why beioratho war Russia and certain parts of ■iiasfcern Poland had a certain amount of typhus, anu why the war, with its marching and counter-marching of armies numbering millions, its evacuations of whole populations, its fleeing refugees and concentration camps, and its devastation of towns and villages, started and spread great epidem.es. And, finally, this explains why the Russian revolution, with the breakdown of administrative machinery that contributed to and' accompanied it, and the wars and oivil wars and migrations that followed after, has seen the scattering of typhus and relapsing fever throughout the length and breadth of Russia, until oases are counted by the million where they were counted in thousands before the war, and the task of cleansing aW caring for the disease-stricken and lice-infested flood of emiera.nts pouring westward out of Russia has strained the resources of her comparatively small neighbours almost to the breaking point. An Appalling Prospect.

This was the situation when, in the autumn 01 li/iO, tne ivua&ue J!»p*ueuucb Commission bewail its worK ol 00-oy&ia.-tion with the i'oliah Health AdnimisWation. By the summer of 1921, the situation seemed decidadiy better —the amount of disease was lessening and tlie stream of refugees and re-emigrants was not greater than could bo handled. During last autumn, however, the effects of the Russian famine began to be felt, both in increasing . the mortality and general susjoptibility to disease of the populations within Russia, and in greatly swelling the flow of refugees toward the western frontiers. By, 1 August, the famine was expected to reach its height, while the tide of emigration was expected to mount enormously with the return of warm weather. The warm weather, too, was certain to bring a recrudescence of cholera, which has already appeared in many places in the Ukraine. The resulting situation is almost too apnalhng to contemplate, and presents a terrible menace to the States bordering on Russia, and: through them to all Europe. It ie also a situation which must be grannled with before the qwwtion of Russian economic re-rival comes within the horii znt. of practical nolitics for trade with Russia is primarily a public health problem. .