Every year since 1910 there have been cases of smallpox in Cleveland.
The Board of Health no longer relies upon the Board of Education to
protect the lives of the community against the scourge. Where 70,000
children are gathered together daily for hours at a stretch, the
possibilities of spreading disease throughout the city at large
constitute a grave menace. Therefore, immediately upon the report of a
case of smallpox, the Board of Health officials exercise their right
of entry into the schools of that district, and either vaccinate or
exclude from attendance every child who could himself become a
carrier of the disease. During the present year over 1,400 children
were vaccinated in this way.
That vaccination prevents smallpox no intelligent person acquainted
with the facts can doubt. An overwhelming mass of incontrovertible
evidence can be found in every medical library. The mortality
statistics of different countries tell the same story. A single
example shows the general experience: In seven provinces of the
Philippine Islands there were 6,000 deaths annually from smallpox
alone. In his 1906 report, Dr. Victor G. Heiser, Director of Health in
the Islands, describes how drastic measures were taken to stamp out
the disease. Under his direction practically three million one hundred
thousand persons were vaccinated. The following year, instead of 6,000
deaths from smallpox, there was not one.
For 13 years the Board of Education has had upon its books a rule
requiring vaccination as a prerequisite to admission to the schools.
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