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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 219, 4 February 1913, Page 4

There is much of interest in the discussion will) reference to the control of typhoid which took place at .'the Advnnccincnt of Science Congress held in Melbourne recently. It was shown bv Dr. Purdy, Chief Health Ollicer for Tasmania, for instance, that the death rule for typhoid had been reduced by a tliird during the past thirty years. It was still as high, however,* as lo per 100,000 in Australia for the ten years ended in I'JIO. whilst it was only 0.0 in Xew Zealand. hi England it.had fallen to 7. whereas in Scotland it was 0.2. In the United States it was as high as 40 per 100,000. After relating experiences of epidemics in Auckland and in Tasmania, Dr. Purdy stated that his experience showed that whenever the average temperature reached 03 dog. in districts where insanitary conditions existed and a typhoid patient or carrier was introduced there was a probability of an outbreak of typhoid. Special biting flics common in March, the typhoid month in Australia and Xew Zealand, may directly inoculate typhoid after feeding on typhoid-infected material. In Tasmania in the past two years typhoid had, he said, been reduced by one-third. In Melbourne. Sydney and Ifobart there had been remarkable | reductions in typhoid since water carrir.ge sewerage systems were established. Among the other experts who dealt with the question was Dr. Burton Bradley, who urged the. importance of cooperation of the health administrator xvith the bacteriologist in the investigation of typhoid cases and epidemics. He outlined the technique he adopts, and favored the use of early direct blood cultures in the diagnoses of the disease. The education of the public on the question of contamination of water and food by Hies was of importance. Proper sewage disposal, such as by water sewerage, was essential, and the value of vaccination for typhoid where the disease was epidemic was put forward. Then again it was urged by Dr. Roth, late of the Education Department of Xew South Wales, that instruction of school children was most important, in the combating of the disease. It is also of interest to mention that the question was raised as to the risk of infection which was present in connection with sterilised food, such as boiled or pasteurised milk. Dr. Purdy agreed with Dr. Clelland that such foods allowed of more rapid growth of typhoid where fly infection took place. The whole of the discussion emphasised \t-ry pointedly the value of cleanliness and the undesirablonoss of encouraging the llv pest i' typhoid is to be kepi down.

THE CONTROL OF TYPHOID.