HEALTH NOTES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 22 July 1929, Page 8

HEALTH NOTES

NUISANCES INFECTIOUS DISEASES (Contributed bv the Department of Health.) From the earliest days of efforts to promote a better public health, the •abatement of nuisances has boon considered to bo an essential part of such work. So much so, that the officers appointed under our earliest English Act dealing with public health, were known as inspectors of nuisances, n title which has survived until quite recently. The earlier pioneers in health work attributed most, if not all, Nf what wo know as epidemics of infectious diseases'to the existence of those coalitions known as nuisances, insanitntmii in dwellings, dampness, lack of sunlight, overcrowding, offensive accumulations of fillli and garbage, keeping of animals under insanitary conditions, emanations from offensive trade processes, impure water supplies,'and excessive production of smoke. To a very large extent this opinion survives today, and many people still think that an' epidemic of diphtheria is directly due to some one nr other of sueh nuisances. To a limited extent these early pioneers in. health work were correct in their deductions, ami those insanitary conditions known as nuisances still mainlain their position as important factors in the production of epidemics, and in their relation to the standard of public health. Hut in the larger knowledge which lias been acquired as to the causation of these epidemic diseases, it it now known that these conditions are not the immediate cause of such epidemics. as they are found occasionally to occur in quite good sanitary environment. Our knowledge of the life History of the organisms giving vise to these infectious diseases provides abundant proof that they do not always emanalo from accumulations of filth or bad drains. DISEASE 01!GANISAIS Within the limits of our present knowledge, wo know’ that infection cl (lie human organism with certain dis-ease-producing bacteria will, certain t,i\ourable circumstances obtaining, produce specific infectious diseases. Wo know, however, that most of these dis-ease-producing organisms will live outside the human body, hut that to retain their viability they require a suitable medium upon which to feed, and a certain degree of warmth or moisture, and in many cases The absence of sunlight. The insanitary conditions winch "o know- as nuisances provide ideal surroundings for the growth of these dis-ease-producing organisms, and thus we find typhoid fever prevailing where imperfect disposal of excreta obtains, ami pulnionavv tuberculosis or consumption more in'evidence where overcrowding with absence of sunlight and fresh air is found. Again, these nuisances provide favourable surroundings in which those animal pests, responsible for the transmission, of diseases to man, may live and thrive. An accumulation of excrement or filth inoculated with typhoid bacteria from some carrier is a favourable resort of the house fly, which m its turn infects our food and milk, and •to spreads this disease. Deposits of rubbish and garbage provide both domicile and food for the plagire-sprcading rat-. Stagnant pools of water and empty tins, harmless in themselves, no doubt, provide ideal nurseries for the mosquito. None of these states has any inherent power to produce a single dis-ease-producing organism, but any of them lias large potentialities for harm to our health. The singeon. before operating prepares his patient and his surroundings •bv ensuring a condition of asepsis, i.e., absence of germ life. We cannot go so far .as this, it would he impracticable, but xve can, by the prevention of nuisances go a very long way towards suppressing factors which are favourable to the growth of disease-producing organisms, and thus prevent the spread of Inlcctious diseases. INSANITABY ENVIRONAIENT We must noi. however, lose sight of the fact that an insanitary environ-' me.it, one subject to nuisances, can exercise a» prejudicial effect on health and physique apart altogether from its possibility's fur promoting, the spread of infectious disease. To live under conditions subjecting one to the fumes from an offensive trade may hot render us liable tu infectious disease; a neighbour's neglected fowlyard may produce m, immediate ill results to health. But to be unable to eat one’s dinner in comfort in the one case, or to wake up in the morning with a headache, owing to inability to ventilate the bedroom may produce a state Of unhealth, arid, after all, unhealth means the same thing as ill-hcallh. Toleration of sueh surroundings can he acquired, for the human organism has a wonderful adaptability in this respect, but sueh toleration is acquired at the expense of health and physique. Similarly, in respect to others of the nuisances enumerated, though the immediate discomfort may not be so obvious, the lowering of\icalth and physique may be more insidious and more detrimental.

The aim of present-day sanitation is to secure freedom from disease, a long term, full and useful period -of life, and" as many of the amenities and comforts of life as possible for the greatest number; arid of the factors making for these ends., a thoroughly sanitary environment, free from nuisances either injurious to health or offensive, is "by no means the least. The evil effects of a nuisance may he widespread, affecting others than the perpetrator thereof, therefore the Legislature Inis rightly made. Urn causing of a nuisance to be a punishable offence. The, good citizen will, however, require no such coercive measure; and the careless citizen should recognise that be is not- carrying out the golden vide "to do to. others as he would lie done by."