AFTER-WAR DISEASES.

Taihape Daily Times, 11 December 1918, Page 5

AFTER-WAR DISEASES.

AN INTERESTING ARTICLE (By a Medical Correpsondent in the London Daily Mail.) Although none of the epidemic diseases which formerly accompanied ex- j hausting wars has broken out in Great j Britain the doctors arc being increasingly mystified by maladies on tv minor scale with which they arc unfamiliar. It may bp that these arc ( new diseases, for it is known that mi- ] crobes change their properties, harm- ( ful ones becoming harmless for a time ( and vice versa. But what constitutes j a danger is the fact that diseases com- ( mon in other countries but new r to Brit- ; ish practitioners, arc being imported ; and will continue to be in growing ■ volume. i MALARIA IN ENGLAND, , AVe had ‘ ‘ botulism ’ 1 for instance, • It was not botulism, after all, and no . one seems yet to know exactly what it was. Then we have “influenza’’ which some doctors say is really influenza and other regard as something else. Malaria is now England, and so is the mosquito which carries it from person to person. AVe only need juxtaposition of the two to have an extensive outbreak; and malaria is a malady that is not easy to get rid of. Nor is it always easily diagnosed, especially in children, in whom it frequently causes little disturbance, of health. An Eastern disease, Kala Azar, has also arrived to make things possibly more difficult for the doctors who have never seen a case. It is not likely to spread, but Dr. 11. I AV. Kerr says in the Lancet that tho'Uiscase developed after the return of two patients from Malta to England. NEAV MICROBES. Ivala Azar is supposed to be carried from person to person by bed bugs and ficas. In one of the two cases Dr. j Kerr strongly suspects the fleas of a dog which slept frequently on the bed of the patient before he got the disease. Britain has plague, too, as is proved by the occurrence of two cases in Suffolk recently; and in an isolated situation which-almost puts out of question the theory of imported infection. Against war diseases of the past —tyhus and tyhpoid fevers, cholera, dysentery, and small-pox?—wo arc well prepared, but the epidemic of “influenza” | proves 'that new microbes .coming along may find us an easy prey. This is partly because we have acquired no immunity of natural resistance against new diseases, and partly because a doctor cannot be expected to diagnose accurately a .malady of which he has never soon an example. A disease new | to us might thus bo mistaken for some- I thing else, as pneumonia plague for pneumonia. INSECT-CARRIERS Lately it has been discovered that flies, fleas, lice, and other insects arc carriers of infection in a degree never previously suspected. In view of af-ter-war possibilities, therefore, everyone should understand This danger and act upon it. Killing the house fly will be of little use unless we also take strong measures against the other and perhaps more dangerous insects. Merciless war on rats is equally necessary. Extreme cleanliness, both personal and in the home, is more than ever called for. Children should not be allowed to fondle dogs and cats, and these animals should be kept out of living rooms and bedrooms, but especially bedrooms. Railway carriages, tramway cars, and omnibuses should be disinfected, and the force of public opinion should be brought to bear on people who frequent public places on obviously dirty clothes. Larger measures will be necessary if Britain is to escape the disease-conse-quences of Avar, which are already beginning to make their appearance and among them the most essential of all is tiro provision of houses iu which people can keep themselves clean. But even still more needed is the immediate organisation of a Ministry of Health which would instruct the people in the methods of avoiding disease and would co-ordinate the efforts of doctors and health .authorities throughout the country.