HEALTH NOTES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 5 August 1929, Page 2

HEALTH NOTES

HVDATIC DISEASE

PRECAUTIONS AGAINST

SPREAD

(Contributed ] ( v the Department of Health)

Hydatids is a parasitic disease, and persons of any age may suffer from it. Through .the neglect of precautions against the disease many persons become infected, and suiter from serious illness, which is sometimes fatal. The disease is caused through man or other animal swallowing the eggs of a tape-worm, which lives in the intestine of a ! dog. This tape-worm, which is less than a quarter of an inch in length, may bo present in largo numbers in the dog,' and yet the animal may show no obvious signs of the disease. Eggs of the tape-worm are voided by the dog in large numbers in its excrement. After being passed, eggs remain alive for a long time, but they cannot hatch out and develop unless they enter a human being or some suitable animal, by being swallowed. Eggs may get on to pasture and grass, infecting sheep, pigs and cattle, into water, which may infect man or animals; or on to vegetables, which are eaten uncooked, such as salads, watercress, etc. Eggs cling to the hair of dogs about their bodies and noses, and thus, if an infected dog is handled or allowed to lick the hands or is fed at mealtimes, eggs may possibly bo carried on the lingers direct to the person's mouth.

Eggs swallowed by man or animals develop, and the parasites bore their way to some organ of the body—the liver , lung, brain, etc.—where they grow into bladders or cysts, which are called hydatids. Dogs become infected by eating portions of an animal, such as liver or lights, containing hydatids. These hydatids contain many immature parasites which develop into tape-worms in the dog's intestine, and such an infected clog becomes a source of danger to man and other animals. PREVENTIVE MEASURES

The prevention of hydatid disease can ]>e readily secured by the destruction of all offal (plucks) containing hydatid cysts. Dogs should not be allowed to enter slaughter-houses, nor cat uncooked offal. Drenching, with a suitable worm-medicine, three or four times a year, of dogs which have to be used about abattoirs or amongst slock in the country, is effective in keeping these animals free from tapeworm. Dog kennels and areas where dogs are chained up should be scalded lit intervals with boiling water, which easily kills the eggs of the tapeworm. The excreta of dogs should bo regularly collected and burnt. Ownerless and useless dogs should be destroyed. Do not allow dogs to enter the house, play with children, lick the hands or face, and never feed them at one's own meal time nor from utensils used by human beings. Prevent dogs from access to any water which is used far drinking by man, and never drink any water from unprotected ponds or streams unless it has been* boiled. Keep dogs away from kitchen gardens. If salads are required, wash thoroughly all such vegetables leaf by leaf in running water. 11 is safer to avoid salads from unknown and unprotected sources. When [be combined effects upon mankind ami stuck are. taken into consideration it, is surely worth the while of every fanner and slaughterman to I ensure thai dogs shall not have access In raw offal.

Heinember, the only source of hydatid disease in man is a dog affected with these minute tape-worms. Man cannot be infected by eating the flesh of an animal thai has had hydatids.