U.S. opens war on social diseases. Washington, D.C., Dec. 28. The first nation-wide effort to combat venereal diseases was launched in Washington today when 300 delegates from 32 states attended the opening session of a three-day conference call by the United States Public Health Service. In the photograph, left to right: Edward S. Godfrey, Jr., State Commissioner of Health of New York state; Dr. Thomas Parran, U.S. Surgeon General; Miss Josephine Roche, Acting Secretary of the Treasury; John H. Stokes; University of Pennsylvania Medical School; and Dr. J.E. Moore, of John Hopkins Hospital