A Modern Health Department

Dr. Alvin Klein

Amazing things were happening in the health sciences at the turn of the century- the twentieth century.  Already the connection between sanitary conditions and health outcomes had been well established, and a whole new understanding of disease was emerging from Europe.  The rivalry between France and Germany was reflected in the careers of the two founders of microbiology, Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch.  Pasteur had found a cure for rabies, and had developed the procedure for making milk safe to drink that bears his name.  Koch had discovered the bacteria that cause anthrax and tuberculosis, and invented the techniques for handling bacteria that are used today.  It was a time of great hope and trust in the sciences for the progress and development of humanity.

This was the milieu in which Dr. Alvin Klein became the Health Officer for the Town of Greenwich in 1908.  Greenwich had had a
Health Officer and a rudimentary Board of Health since 1886.  They were concerned with sanitation issues and sending samples of milk, sputum and blood to the State Laboratory (then located at Yale University in New Haven) for analysis.  But Dr. Klein faced many challenges in his new job.  Greenwich had experienced epidemics of measles and scarlet fever, of diphtheria and whooping cough. People caught typhoid fever from contaminated drinking water, and malaria and rabies were prevalent.

Dr. Klein fought back with all the weapons in his arsenal.  He inspected the schools, and treated children with the new diphtheria antitoxin.  He recommended that children entering school be given the somewhat risky smallpox vaccination.  He ordered the muzzling of all dogs to combat rabies; in 1912, two persons who had contracted rabies were given the Pasteur treatment and were cured.  He badgered the Town Meeting to create a Sewer Commission to improve drainage issues.  He wrote that the Town water supply was basically plentiful and good, but it was  ”subject to occasional pollution.  This can only be detected by frequent bacteriological examination.  When we have the facilities for making these exams, any dangerous conditions showing in the water can be immediately reported and remediated”.

Possibly the last straw came in 1912, when he had to organize a major project to control malaria, which was endemic in Greenwich.  Between the Town government and private subscriptions, $10,000.00 was raised to drain the swamps in the south part of the town and to cover those in the north with oil. He wrote: “This immense amount of work was made necessary by the totally inadequate provision for public health in the past”.



The Maher Building

 It took him years to do it, but in April 1913 he got the Town to appropriate funding for a modern health department- including a state-of-the-art laboratory, which was duly founded in 1914.  Beside Dr. Klein, it consisted of a veterinarian, a nurse, an assistant sanitary inspector, and a bacteriologist to run the laboratory and serve as sanitary inspector. There was also a secretary who replaced the first one who quit after a month- was she uncomfortable when she found out she would be working near cultures of disease-causing organisms?  This is not unknown today in laboratories.  The offices of the Department and the laboratory were set up in the Maher Building on Greenwich Avenue (over the store where the Starbuck’s is today).  Its telephone number was 1086. 

Dr. Klein soon moved on to greener pastures, but his legacy lives on in the health department that he created.  We imagine him looking on with understanding and approval at the current renewal project of the Greenwich Department of Health Laboratory (2012), which will allow it to meet challenges ranging from the  sanitary monitoring that was and is still so important, to that of the 21^st century challenge of coping with
deliberately introduced anthrax infection by terrorists.  As the department then depended on both public and private support, so it still does today.  Dr. Klein knew that the laboratory is a key part of a modern health department.

Sources:

Barry, 2004

Greenwich Health Department Annual Reports: 1908. 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1918

Greenwich Press, November 11, 1926