TUBERCULOSIS AND MILK

Hokitika Guardian, 29 June 1931, Page 3

TUBERCULOSIS AND MILK

DISEASE IN CHILDREN. LONDON, May 7. A memorandum on “JJovine Tuberculosis in Man,” issued by LI jo Ministry of Health, states that probably 1000 children under the age of 15 die annually in England and Wales from non-pulmonary tuberculosis of bovine origin.

In 1929 the human death rate for all forms oL tuberculosis was 959 a million, the rate for pulmonary disease (consumption) being 793, and for all

other forms (bones, glands, etc.) 1(36. In these other forms the most common infecting agency was milk. The death rate for that year was rather higher th'an that for 1928, but there hafc been a steady fall in the rate during the last 20 years. The success which has attended efforts to combat tuberculosis of* all types is proved by the fact that in 191-3 no fewer than 117,139 new cases were reported, and in 1929 the number had fallen to 75,956.

i “It is practically certain,” states the report, “that the great majority of human infections with the bovine tubercle bacillus are conveyed by moans of cows’ milk, and that infection usually occurs during the early years of life.”

I The proportion of milch cows in this ! country infected with tuberculosis is believed to he not less than 40 per cent. The proportion actually yielding tuberculosis milk, however, is probably between 1 and 2 per cent. 1 Of the samples of milk examined in London in 1929 for tubercle bacilli, 7.5 gave positive results. ; TREATMENT OF MILK.

On the question of the' treatment of milk the report states that, subject to careful operation and scientific control, pasteurisation ensures a milk which not only is safe for consumption, but also retains its food value practically unimpaired by the heat to which it Is subjected. Londoners - are assured that “it is probable that most of the milk now sold in London has been subjected to effective pasteurishtion. ’ ’

The' need is expressed for improved methods of cow-keeping and the education of cow-keeper's. “Old and grossly insanitary cow sheds are still coin mon,” it is stated, “and new sheds are often constructed (or old ones adapted) in a manner displaying ignorance of the principles governing the spread of infection.”