STROKING DOGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 148, 26 June 1939, Page 8

STROKING DOGS.

HYDATIDS DANGER.

RISK OF INFECTION.

AUSTRALIAN DOCTOR'S VIEW

Though apparently people did not seem to realise it. one common way of catching hydatids was through stroking dogs, said Dr. Victor Coppleson. a prominent surgeon of Australia, who is on his way to attend the Pan-Pacific surgical conference to be held in Honolulu in September. He arrived in Auckland by the Monterey this morning.

One means by which the disease became prevalent, he said, was through dogs eating the intestines of infected animals. The dogs became infected, and when stroked by human beings they passed the infection on. It w«s fairly common, he added, for children to stroke doss and then to go and eat a meal without washing their hands. That was a dangerous practice.

One way of controlling the disease was to exercise strict supervision at slaughterhouses and see that dogs did not have the chance to eat such offal.

Dr. X.Vjppleson has |ierforined many operations on hydatid cases in Australia. He said that much progress was being made in the Commonwealth towards combatting the disease.

Dr. B. P. Anderson-Stuart is also going to the same conference. He, Dr. Coppleson and another doctor are to read a paper on three different aspects of tho disease. Dr. Anderson-Stuart is accompanied by his wife.

Ho and Dr.- Coppleson are going to the United States before the conference opens at Honolulu. *