A DREAD DISEASE.

Taihape Daily Times, 13 September 1918, Page 3

A DREAD DISEASE.

CBREBRO SPINAS MENINGITIS. HOW IT IS COMBATTED IN THE CAMPS. Cerebro spinal meningitis, to the average citizen, is a dread disease which has puzzled medical authorities and caused speedy death among the few soldiers whom it has attacked. In a small but busy corner of the Medical Corps buildings in Featherston Camp there is an officer,- Lieutenant Ross, and several soldiers, whose sole duty is to deal in bacteria, or "bugs," as they are calleU by the men. Two rooms are lined with shelves, displaying numerous tubes and mysterious bottles. There is an incubator, steriliser, and other fittings necessary to the research into the various sicknesses which attack men in camp. It is probably the amount of energy displayed and the keenness of this -staff which is responsible to a great extent for the fact that the camps in I New 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 prepared. When an officer shows the visitor a small bottle, about two inches high,' and tells you that it contains four thousand million bacteria, he nathrally has respect for his mathematical ability, and refrains from wondering at anything. In ordinary tf)St tubes one can see the actual cerebrospinal 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, semitransparent organisms it is said that there is enough to spell death to a company of men.

Every man who comes into camp is j swabbed. This' is done with a small swab of cotton wool on the end of a I wire. The wire fits into a bottle through the cork, and each bottle is labelled so that the case of each man is kept separate. A microscopic slide is prepared from the 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 cerebro spinal 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 he 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, however, 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 "e'sm" is quite a menace to the men, but the cases have been remarkably few compared with the many thousands of men who have gone into 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 the camp is a regular hive of industry, and from 125 to 150 men are swabbed a day. Each of these swabs has to be made into a slide, and treateel separately, so that it means a lot of work. The actual disease does not at- ! tack' the bones or muscles, but is an infection of the fluids around the j.ain 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.