Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1918. CEREBRO – SPINAL MENINGITIS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1874, 7 September 1918, Page 2

Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1918. CEREBRO - SPINAL MENINGITIS.

TO I ho average citizen cerebrospinal meningitis is a dread disease which has puzzled medical authorities and caused speedy death among' the lew soldiers whom it has attached. In a small lint busy corner oi’ the Aledical Corps buildings in Eeatherston Cam]) (here is an otiicer, Lieut. Ross, and several soldiers, whose sole duly is to deal in bacteria, or “bugs,” as they are called by the men. Two rooms are lined with shelves displaying numerous lubes and mysterious bottles. There is an incubator, steriliser and other Jit lings necessary lo the research into the various sicknesses which attack men in cam]). If is probably the amount ol energy displayed and the keenness of this staff which is responsible to a great extent for the fact that the camps in Xew Zealand maintain a record for being immune from illness. The average man would only be baffled by the technical description of the process by which the nature of bacteria is discovered, or how the various innoculation vaccines are (irepared. When the officer shows the visitor a small bottle, about two inches high, and tells you that it contains four thousand million bacteria, he naturally has respect for his mathematical ability, and refrains from wondering at anything. In ordinary test tubes one can see the actual cerebro-spinal meningitis germs breeding on a jelly-like mixture which contains human blood. The latter is necessary to their culture. In a mere fleck of these white, semi-transparent organs, it is said that there is enough to spell death to a company of men. Every man who comes into camp is swabbed.

This is clone with a small swab of cotton wool on the end of a wire. The wire fits into a bottle through the cork, and each bottle is labelled so that (he ease of each man is kept separate. A microscope slide is prepared from (he swab, and the dry glass is painted with an aniline dye to accentuate the form of the organs. If, upon examination, a man is found to be a carrier of cerebrospinal meningitis germs, he is instantly despatched to the isolation hospital at Tauherenikau. Thus all possibility of his infecting others is removed, and he is given the necessary treatment. Inhalations and gargles are given him constantly until he gives two negative swabs when lie is freed for ordinary duty. It is interesting to note that while some men are carriers of these germs, they do not fall victims to the disease. It is possible, therefore, that if their condition was very low they would contract the disease later, if the isolation were not effected and their throats cleared. Some people have the idea that “cs-m.” is quite a menace to the men, but the cases have been remarkably few compared with the many thousands of men who have gone through the camps. In addition to this, recent cases have proved more satisfactory, and the efforts to combat the disease have met with improved results. The bacteriological department, in (lie camp is a regular hive of industry, and Ji'om 125 to 150 men are swabbed a day. Each of these swabs has to be made into a slide, and treated separately, so that means a lot of work. The actual disease does not attack the hones or muscles, but is an infection of the fluids around the brain and spinal column. The precautions against the disease are, so exacting that the possibility of men contracting it is very remote, and this is probably the reason that it has been so successfully combated, for the percentage of fatal cases is happily very low.