TWO CASES OF HYDATIDS

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28158, 22 December 1956, Page 10

TWO CASES OF HYDATIDS

RECENT DEATH OF CHILD

DANGERS OF DISEASE EMPHASISED

“Two cases of hydatids, which have recently been notified in the Christchurch health district, illustrate only too well the dangers of this preventable disease to persons of all ages, and the need for an energetic campaign against hydatids in this country,” said :he Deputy-Medical Officer of Health <Dr. H. T. Knights) yesterday. One of the cases reported resulted in the death of a young child, he said, and the other was a more long-stand-ing infestation in an elderly person.

“The one infection was contracted in the course of a person’s employment on a farm, and the other might have been a chance infection in the; country, or might have been contracted from a town dog, as this was an urban dweller. “In the case of the child the infestation occurred in a site in which symptoms and a grave illness result comparatively quickly. In the other case the infestation occurred where the disease can be present for several years without causing any symptoms. “These two cases illustrate only too sadly the wide range of age which this disease covers, and the early fatal outcome as well as the prolonged invalidity which it can cause,” said Dr Knights.