HEALTH OF AMERICA

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12199, 25 July 1925, Page 11

HEALTH OF AMERICA

Signs of General Improvement x Astonishing Figures 1

The general health of the United States as a whole has been -steadily improving fgr more than a decade (declares the’ New York "Times”). Although the death rate has increased in this period in'a few diseases, there is a marked decline in most of the list. In; very few instances has the mortalityrate remained stationary. The death rate from all causes has declined almost 10 per oent. is ten years. Ten; years ago the death rate from ’all causes was about 1500 per 100,000 population. Each year thereafter marked a steady decline until 1918, the i n fluenxa year, when the rate jumped above 1800. The rate quickly returned to normal, and is to-day about 1100. The steady decline> in the past' few years is believed by some to be 'influenced by prohibition. Contrary to the general impression, the number of deaths from violence, including suicides, shows a similar decrease. The most striking contrast is found in the death rate for typhoid fever. Twelve years ago the death rate from this disease was about 24 per 100,000, while to-day it is less than seven, a drop to less than one-third the earlier figure. The improvement in the rate for tuberculosis, while less varied, is very significant. Its rate had declined steadily from about 140 to less than 100 in a little more than a decade. Ah the present rate of improvement the danger from the disease will soon he less than that from several other causes. In the case of half a dozen common diseases the death rate has been re-

duced to .onis-half dr one-third , the rate of ten years ago. Deaths from rheumatism are but one-half as numerpus as a decade ago. The danger from scarlet fever is-'about one-third whan it was ten years ago, and a similar improvement has occurred in regard to bronchitis, measles, diphtheria, meningitis, and liver complaints. A contrast is found, in the case of malaria,. which has become slowly hut steadily more dangerous in this period, until its death rate-has almost doubled. The same is true of smallpox, which also has almost doubled its death rate. Diseases .of the firain have become more deadly. There has also been a steady increase in the death rate from heart disease. The rate for organic diseases of the heart is at present nearly 170 per 100,000,- while that if tuberculosis is less than 100. The death - ra,te from ' pneumonia, which ranks next to heart disease', is aboutISO. The jump in the death rate of influenza and its violent fluctuations is one of the curiosities of'these statistics. Ten years ago the rate from this cause was very small, or only about 10 per 100,000. In 1918, the war year, the death rate' from this disease was 300. The following year it dropped to 98. and three years later rose to 133. The death rate from cancer has also increased.

Ten years ago the rate of violent deaths was about 90 perloo,ooo, .while to-day it is about 70. There has-been a marked . decline in suicides. The rate was 16. per 100,000 a decade ago, while todays it is a little over 10.'