VIEWPOINT

It's up to you!

1

BY C. EVERETT KOOP, MD, ScD
Surgeon General of the United States

A mericans enjoy one of the greatest health-
care systems in the world and employ the largest
research community ever assembled. This is part of
an effort to guarantee good health for all. But the best
physicians and scientists still cannot prevent the
deaths of more than eleven babies per 1,000 live
births in the US, the annual deaths of almost 120
adolescents and young adults per 100,000 popula-
tion, or the high mortality rate among others due
to stroke, cancer, and other diseases.

I would like to emphasize here some of the efforts
aimed at children. Not only do these efforts fit in
with the Kiwanis theme, "Make Every Child Spe-
cial," and the program "Share Good Health with
Children," but they are the logical place to start if
we are to pass on a legacy of life that is available to
all at a price that is affordable.

It seems to be that one important ingredient
has too often been missing in equations for good
health: the individual. More and more the medical
community and the general public are becoming
aware that science can guarantee no cure, or pana-
cea, to eliminate disease and prolong life.

Certainly we continue to make modest gains
through important research and attention to qual-
ity care. Overall, life expectancy at birth continues
to increase, infant mortality continues to decline,
and even the death rates for cancer have decreased
or leveied off. But the greatest gains in the health sta-
tus of Americans as well as citizens of other coun-
tries would now appear to be in the hands of the
public itself as each of us, individually, realizes
that we may not be the masters of our fate but
surely can improve our health by making wiser
decisions in our life-styles and in the habits that
directly affect our opportunities for good health.

Immunization is an example. More than 90 per-
cent of American children are now immunized
against the major childhood diseases by the time
they enter school. However, appreciable differences
exist in immunization levels among preschool
children by race, residence, and family income. We
must reach those pockets of low-level immuniza-
tion if we are to conquer the communicable child-
hood diseases, and it is through efforts by
organizations such as Kiwanis that these groups
can be reached and served. It also must be a world-
wide effort. My efforts with the World Health
Organization and my many years of working with
other nations of the world convince me that Kiwa-
nis' efforts worldwide will pay dividends to the
future good health of us all.

Other programs of our prevention initiative
deal with nutrition, dental health, accident pre-
vention, and medical screening in the Head Start
program for underprivileged children, as well as
with alcohol and drug-abuse counseling in youth
centers for runaways.

It's no secret that smoking is a major concern of
mine. I consider smoking, in fact, to be the number
one public health problem in the United States. It
will be responsible for more than 300,000 deaths
this year-preventabb deaths. If smokers could
see an emphysema victim gasping desperately for
breath-dying slowly from lack of oxygen-they
would likely stop smoking immediately. And
that's just one of the diseases associated with
smoking cigarettes. Lung cancer, heart disease,
other forms of cardiovascular disease, chronic
bronchitis, and ulcers of the gastrointestinal
tract are others.

Another program that I consider of primary
importance is an information campaign called
"Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies," carried out
with more than fifty private groups to explain
health practices to pregnant women.

Given current medical knowledge, high quality
prenatal care beginning early in pregnancy holds
the greatest promise for improvement. This care
includes counseling the pregnant woman about
the effects on her baby of diet, smoking, alcohol,
and medications and encouraging her to make
necessary changes in her health behavior to help
ensure a healthy baby.

Our efforts to prevent disease and promote   The future good health of the world depends
healthful life-styles are concentrated in every age  upon the health of its children. And they depend
group of the population, including the elderly. But   on us.

MARCH 19831KIWANIS MAGAZINE/l5