"Do it now!" Yakima, Wash, and the campaign against rural typhoid

N. Casner

American Journal of Public Health, 2001, vol. 91, issue 11, 1768-1775

Abstract: In 1911, Yakima, in western Washington, suffered a typhoid epidemic that turned the nation's attention to a crisis in public health. The response exemplified the ideals of the "new public health" as a more proactive, scientific, federal commitment to the problems of rural America. A US Public Health Service investigation led by Dr Leslie Lumsden found a typhoid mortality rate of nearly 5 times the national average. The cause was bad sanitation. Typhoid rates dropped dramatically as the community adopted pragmatic solutions. Lumsden helped organize a "Do It Now" sanitation campaign and one of the country's first city-county health units. Yakima provided a model for other rural areas and small towns across the country. This episode in one of the country's most productive fruit-growing regions raised serious questions regarding the geographic dynamics of disease. For Lumsden and other like-minded health officials, the countryside represented a dangerous reservoir of disease, a particular threat to the nation's agriculturally dependent urban populations. Yakima showed that the country needed a more comprehensive public health system that addressed urban and rural problems.

Date: 2001
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:2001:91:11:1768-1775_1

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