HEALTH NOTES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 766, 12 September 1929, Page 2

HEALTH NOTES

NUISANCES INFECTIOUS DISEASES I ■ j (Contributed by the Department of i Health.) From the earliest days of effort to | promote a better public health, the; abatement of nuisances has been con- j sidered to be an essential part of such : work. So much so, that the officers j appointed under our earliest English Act dealing with public health, were known as Inspectors of nuisances, a title which has survived until quite recently. The earlier pioneers in health work attributed most, if not all, of what we know as epidemics of infec- ■ tious diseases to the existence of those ; conditions known as nuisances, insani-' tation in dwellings, dampness, lack of ! sunlight, overcrowding, offensive accumulations of filth 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 or other of such nuisances. To a limited extent these early pioneers in health work were correct in their deductions, and those insanitary conditions known as nuisances still maintain their position as important factors in the production of epidemics, and in their relation to the standard of public health. But in the larger knowledge -which has been acquired as to the causation of these epidemic diseases, it is 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 rise to these infectious diseases provides abundant proof accumulations of filth or bad drains, that they do not always emanate from DISEASE ORGANISMS Within the limits of our present knowledge, -we know that infection of the human organism with certain dis-ease-producing bacterial will, certain favourable circumstances obtaining, produce specific infectious diseases. We know-, however, that most of these disease-producing organisms will live outside the human body, but 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 which we

know as nuisances provide ideal surroundings for the growth of these dis-ease-producing organisms, and thus we find typhoid fever prevailing wliere imperfect disposal of excreta obtains, and pulmonary 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 disease to man. may live and thrive. An accumulation of excrement or tilth inoculated with typhoid bacteria from some carrier is a favourable resort of the .house fly, which in its turn infects onr food and milk, and so spreads this disease. Deposits of rubbish and garbage provide both domicile and food for the plague-spreading 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 disease-producing organism, hut any of them has large potentialities for harm to our health. The surgeon before operating prepares his patient and his surroundings by ensuring a condition- at asepsis, i.e., absence of germ life. At e cannot go so far as this —it. would be impracticable—but we can, by the prevention of nuisances, go a very long -way toward suppressing factors which are favourable to the growth of dis-ease-producing organisms, and thus prevent the spread of infectious diseases. INSANITARY ENVIRONMENT We must not, however, lose sight of the fact than an Insanitary environment. one subject to nuisances, can exercise a prejudicial effect on health and physique apart altogether from its possibilities for promoting tlio spread of infectious disease. To live under conditions subjecting one to tile fumes from an offensive trade may not render us liable to infectious