“…the first day of the survey showed an extremely serious condition in Mitchell County, and one which demanded immediate and drastic action on the part of the local authorities.” - Dr. John McMullen, Report of Trachoma Clinic Conducted at Pelham, Mitchell County, Ga., November 14, 1921-April 1, 1922
INTERACTIVE FEATURE
Narration by Alan Kraut, Professor of History at American University in Washington, D.C.
Trachoma in Georgia: A “Serious Condition”
An eye doctor in Thomasville, Georgia, wrote to the State Health Department in 1921, concerned that several patients from Mitchell County in southwest Georgia presented with what appeared to be trachoma. Prior to that, a few cases of trachoma had been found in north Georgia, where the U.S. Public Health Service had surveyed 25 counties in 1913, and found seven cases. In response to the south Georgia’s letter, the State Health Department applied to federal officials for help. The U.S. Public Health Service sent Dr. John McMullen, a surgeon and epidemiologist, to investigate. (1)
McMullen arrived in September in Camilla, the county seat. The visit was noted by the weekly paper of nearby Pelham. It tied the investigation to the town of Hopeful, to the west:
“Dr. John McMullen, who is connected with the U.S. Public Health Services [sic] with headquarters in Kentucky, is in Camilla to conduct an investigation of a suspicious eye disease which has been reported from the Twelfth District… It seems that several people from the Hopeful neighborhood have recently been treated by a specialist for an unusual affection [sic] of the eyes showing some of the indications of the disease know [sic] as trachoma, a very serious and dangerous eye disease. ” (2)
Dr. John McMullen published this report after his investigation into a trachoma outbreak in southwest Georgia in 1921.
McMullen deemed the situation to be “an extremely serious condition” (3) and recommended the immediate opening of a clinic. County officials procured the use of a facility in Pelham that had previously been a private hospital, but had failed. It was opened in November of 1921, with 25 beds, and, according to McMullen’s report, patients “overran the hospital,” keeping the staff busy “practically all of the time.” (4)
“Aside from the public-health aspect of this question, many of the cases admitted to the hospital presented that pathetic appearance which is so commonly seen in the trachoma clinics and which appeals to the humanitarian side and stimulates the workers to the highest possible effort to retain the flickering light all but lost as a result of this mutilating disease.” (5)
The clinic, intended from the start to be only temporary, was open for four-and-a-half months, and McMullen reported that 200 cases of trachoma were cured. (6)
The building that once served as the temporary Pelham Trachoma Hospital on Curry St. has since been turned into a house.
The following year, Pelham reopened the trachoma clinic to handle some additional cases that were found. It’s not clear when that closed. (7)
A Second Outbreak
A larger outbreak in the same part of Georgia was reported just a few years later. The cases began cropping up around 1930, and Georgia’s Health Department created a field unit to keep track of the disease, and handle existing cases. They lobbied Georgia’s General Assembly for the money to do that:
“As an aid in securing the additional funds, the county health officer brought a number of children to the State Capitol who were suffering from the effects of trachoma and had them circulate through the vicinity so that the members of the Assembly could see the debilitating consequences of the menace.” (8)
It worked — the state funded the unit. The outbreak extended beyond just Mitchell County, into neighboring Decatur County of Southwest Georgia. Health officials found more than 3,000 cases of trachoma, and the unit operated for two years. (9)
SOURCES:
1. Abercrombie, Thomas Franklin. History of Public Health in Georgia, 1733-1950. Atlanta, Ga.: n.p. 1953.
2. “Trachoma, an Affection [sic] Reported in Hopeful Section.” The Pelham Journal 23 Sept. 1921: 1.
3. McMullen, John. “Report of Trachoma Clinic Conducted at Pelham, Mitchell County, Ga., November 14, 1921-April 1, 1922.” Public Health Reports (1896-1970) Vol. 37, No. 35 (Sep. 1, 1922): 2089-2094
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Annual Report of the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service of the United States. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1923: 74.
8. Abercrombie: 82.
9. Ibid.
