INCIDENCE OF HYDATIDS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25249, 30 July 1947, Page 8

INCIDENCE OF HYDATIDS

CASES IN COUNTRY AND TOWN

DOSING OF DOGS HELD NECESSARY

Of the 20 cases of hydatids reported to the Department of Health in Christ- * church last year 11 were reported from the country and nine from towns. This information was given yesterday by Dr. J. H. Blakelock, medical officer of health for Canterbury and the West Coast, when he commented on a letter to the editor of “The Press” by Mr Matt. Grant. Cases were not notified to the department until a long .time after the disease was contracted, he added, and ‘ it was possible that the town cases had such contact with the country that they could have caught the disease there.

Dogs which remained in the city and had no contact with the country did not have the same opportunity of getting hydatids as those in the country, Dr. Blakelock said. The liver given them was usually cooked, and the liver supplied to their owners had been inspected for contamination. Dogs in towns had little opportunity of getting the infected offal which was often available to dogs in the country. “However, that is not an argument against the dosing of dogs in towns.” he added. “All people if they want to be quite safe, should follow the instructions printed on the pamphlet issued when dogs are registered.” Thp correspondent said that the leading article on hydatids in “The Press” had “evoked only a defence of the dogs,” and that he was interested in the human side. His four-year-old son had recently suffered a dangerous operation for hydatids on the lung. Because of the danger of hydatids he had never kept a dog, he continued, and the boy had been bom and bred in the town. It had oftefi been said that town dogs were not bearers of the disease, but statistics had not been given in supports of that contention. After asking for a comparison of the notified cases. Mr Grant said: “Perhaps it would be better even ‘cruelly’ to dose dogs to save ourselves from the charge of cruelty to innocent children.”