Health in Camp

Fifty U.S. soldiers in 100,000 had pneumonia in August, ten had measles, 35 mumps. Never before has the U.S. Army enjoyed such magnificent health. But two black facts were not included in the report issued by the War Department last week: 1) the venereal-disease rate in the Army is increasing; 2) the amount of mental disease in the Army is causing officers great concern.

Credit. During the past year, civilians have bandied tales about whole platoons drowning, dozens of draftees killing themselves, epidemics of infantile paralysis and meningitis engulfing camps, soldiers falling into pits of rattlesnakes. These rumors are false. The facts:

> There have been no deaths from snakebite.

> Although there were rumors of a wave of suicides at Fort Dix, N.J., only one soldier killed himself. Before 1940, the Army suicide rate was 35 per 100,000; since the draft it is 13, a rate lower than that of the general population (15 per 100,000).

> Since the war in Europe there have been twelve cases of polio, twenty of meningitis in the U.S. Army. This is far lower than the rate among the civilian population.

> The accident rate has climbed from an annual peacetime normal of 112 per 1,000 soldiers to 162. (Civilian rate about 71). But Army officials hope it will decline in a short while. Reason: many green men are handling mechanized equipment.

> The regular Army doctors are far superior to those of World War I, although still not as good on the average as the men in civilian hospitals. There is a shortage of nurses, but the Federal Government has just appropriated $1,250,000 for training them.

> In small camps hastily constructed the hospitals are little more than shacks. But Congress recently set aside $150,000,000 for a hospital-expansion program. Old buildings will be enlarged; new ones will be built in small towns where defense projects are under way for the use of both civilians and soldiers. Many of the hospitals will be planned for permanent use, depending on the need of the community.

A great difficulty is the present shortage of equipment. Although hospitals have Class A rating on the priorities list, steel beds in quantity are almost impossible to get. So are many instruments, including most of the 'scopes, formerly imported from Germany.

Debit. No one knows how many psychotics are in the Army. Those who are incapacitated occupy about 2.7% of the beds in Army hospitals. Since psychiatric induction exams are brief and not always conducted by specialists, it is difficult for doctors to sort out all the mental cases. Chief headache: every psychotic soldier costs the Government $25,000 in care and pensions.

Somewhat different is the problem of venereal disease. In 1917, Army doctors had to accept men who were infected with syphilis and gonorrhea; today all men inducted are perfectly healthy, yet venereal disease, particularly gonorrhea, is now the Army's most serious medical problem. Many private physicians growl that their former patients--men who went to camp healthy--became infected within six months. At present the Army rate is close to that of the civilian population, as it tends to reflect the civilian rate in each neighborhood. Selective service examination figures vary from Florida (53.5 syphilitics per 1,000 white men, 380 per 1,000 Negroes) to Connecticut (1.4 per 1,000). Highest rates are in the South; lowest in New England and the north central states.

Control of venereal disease remains difficult, although soldiers can buy preventive kits and ten-cent sheaths at camp stores. All men are supposed to report to camp stations for treatment after exposure. But many do not take the trouble. Nor do they worry about the rule which provides for docking pay of infected men, or the possibility of court martial, at the discretion of the commanding officer, for unreported infection. The U.S. Public Health Service makes no bones about the fact that some Army officers, especially in the South, find it almost impossible to enforce sanitary rules. In some camps, soldiers are shown educational movies (see p. 82).

Surgeon General Thomas Parran, a devout Catholic, believes that the only solution to the problem is for soldiers to remain continent. He would like to see pretty girls hired for recreation jobs in Army camps, for he thinks that soldiers are starved for companionship, not for sex.

Many doctors favor declaring red-light districts out of bounds. Under the May Act, passed last June, the Secretary of War can fix zones in which prostitution is a Federal offense. So far Secretary Stimson has done nothing. Probably the law will be enforced only in sections where local officials refuse to do their own cleaning up. Another difficulty: like the Army, prostitutes have become mechanized. They move around in cars and trailers, can't be put off Federal roads.

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