PREVENTING C.S.M.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17279, 21 September 1916, Page 8

PREVENTING C.S.M.

NEW METHOD BEING TRIED. One of tho -most baffling diseases that has occurred in military camps throughout the world has been cerebrospinal meningitis, or generally known in the medico-military world as “ c-s.m.” Nono of tho combatantarmies have been free from it, and tho mortality among c.s.m. patients is invariably high, such cases as have recovered having only done so through very careful nursing. Prevention being better than cure, the military medical authorities have insisted on soldiers in camp gargling regularly, bur this has not been found to give the results desired, ns the cases of c.s.m. that have occurred in New Zealand’s camps during the past few months have only too plainly shown. On Tuesday, says the “Post,”' Sur-geon-General Henderson, DirectorGeneral of Medical Services, made the announcement that a new method of preventing the disease was now being tried. He had cabled to the War Office recently, asking what was the latest •method devised of checking tho trouble. and had received a reply advising him of a new system which ho was at once putting into operation. Under this system men suffering from sore throats would bo treated in specially constructed rooms at both camps, me method was to saturate the atmosphere of tho room with steam charged with a special disinfectant. Men with sore throats would be put into these rooms and left there to inhalo the vapour for a period of five minutes. The disinfectant would thus get into the whole of tho human air passages which gargling could not reach. In this way large numbers of men could be dealt with, and tho scheme, although m its infancy, seemed to hold out fair prospects of being a success. It was designed to prevent the disease and to check its developing. He could !.ot sav what success the new treatment Kau met with at Home, because it- was new, and so far he had not been advised of the results. Having got the.advice, he was now giving it a trial in. JNew Zealand. General Henderson added that steps had also been taken for making similar provision for the transports.