Hydatids Cause Big Loss To Dominion

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28748, 20 November 1958, Page 10

Hydatids Cause Big Loss To Dominion

LBy F. H. GREENAWAY]

. For very many years the in-| I creasing incidence of hydatid cysts! i in human beings has been a cause. ■ of deep concern to members of the ’ medical profession. i Only in recent years, however,; ! has attention been drawn to the 1 economic effects of this disease upon New Zealand. In the “New Zealand Medical, i Journal” of June, 1957, Dr. D. D.' ! McCarthy states:— i “Most of the information regarding the incidence of hydatids ! disease in New Zealand comes | from hospital admissions and ; from notifications. These give but 'part of the story. Hydatids disi ease is much more common than lour hospital statistics or notifications indicate. In 1940. D'Ath rci corded 38 cases from 6189 consecutive post-mortem examina-j tions, an incidence of 0.61 per | cent., or a rate of 610 per one hundred thousand. In 1955-57. the same source records 26 cases from 2558 consecutive autopsies.! an incidence of 1.02 per cent., or 'a rate of 1020 per hundred thousand.” ! It is apparent from these figures .that the incidence of hydatids is [growing rapidly and that as infection occurs in childhood, the figures for future years will, in jail probability, be much worse' than those given here. The first record of hydatids disease in New Zealand, that is in i human beings, was made by Mac-1 Donald, in 1888. though the dis-i ease was apparently well known' Ito most medical practitioners of I ;that time. (McCarthy.) The con-| | elusion to be drawn from this is; [that even at that time, the habit i of feeding all raw offal to dogs was, j quite common in New Zealand, jand that Sithough scientific evi-, dence has come forward duringi the last 50 years to prove that 'the only way in which dogs may! be infected with hydatids is by [the feeding of raw offal to them.! this habit has continued amongst] the people of New Zealand even] though there is a law against it. I ’’Stock Act.) Iceland's Example I The history of hydatids in Ice-1 land is of particular interest to [New Zealand, because in that I country, when first investigations j were made about the middle of last century, approximately one • person in every six of the population was infected with hydatids. ; Briefly, the method of approach jto the problem in Iceland was to i prevent dogs having access to raw offal in any way. Public ■ slaughterhouses were erected, and j whereas formerly all '■hoep wore ’slaughtered by farmers and the entrails thrown to the dogs, the in the slaughterhouses i was to prevent dogs having access ■to the slaughterhouses, and it was illegal for anyone to slaughter a | beast at any place other than i the official slaughterhouse. i Since approximately 1930, very 'careful statistics of all autopsies carried out in Iceland have been kept, and it has been shown that* isince 1932 no person who died' | under the age of 20 years had a j hydatid cyst in him. As the age , igroups increased, so the incidence! lof hydatids increased, so that in ■ the age group 7(Mo 90 years there! J was an incidence of approximately 16 per cent. (These figures' are taken from the “New Zealand i Medical Journal." of June. 1957,] from an article by Niels Dungal. IM D . who was the professor of ■pathology at Reykjavik.) | The hydatid life cycle is a very ; simple one. A dog eats raw offal {containing a hydatid cyst. This ! offal may come from a sheep, pig. j horse, cattle beast, deer, wallaby. I lor even an opossum. There may! ialso be other animals which are' infected with hydatid cysts. (Although hares and rabbits suffer: from hydatids the type is differ-i ent from that which attacks; I human beings) Within each cyst] are thousands of worm heads.; These worm heads attach themselves to the intestines of the dog growing until they contain three or even four segments, the ■ last of which is the sac in which I are housed some five nr six hundred minute eggs. These sacs! pass out of the dog and as the i eggs dry they blow about in the i w ; nd. fal’ing on grass, lettuces ; cabbages nr even blowing through : the windows of a house on to food on a table. Formation of Cyst Animals or human beings eat these eggs which, when The outer shell is dissolved from them, hatch into worms or embryos whch grow through the wall of the stomach, thus entering the ! blood stream in which they are carried around until they meet i an obstruction, most commonly I in the liver. As soon as motion ceases, the embryo forms into a cyst which grows sometimes slowly, sometimes rapidly, until it is the size of a marble, an orange or, as in the case of one |

[woman in Iceland, approximately ;• 20 inches across. The cyst contains thousands, or even millions. , of wormheads or scolices. any of j which will form into a worm if ■ I eaten by a dog. I There being no method of removing hydatid cysts from animals or humans once they have i formed, other than by surgery. I there remains only one method lof stamping out hydatids—namely, the preventing of dogs ’ eating raw offal. This has been • widely known for a number of 1 years and is such a simple rcL medy that it is amazing that in New Zealand, a country where 1 the great majority of people are well educated, there should be the highest incidence of hydatids in human brings in any country ’jin the world outside of South America. ; To give one example of the effect of hydatids on an animal, it could be mentioned that a ' mail purchased a young stallion J for £lOOO. This animal was never 'raced because it began to lose c condition, and after a few months, s when it died, its liver was found ’ to bo completely infested with ' hydatid cysts, the cause of death ’ Doubtless this occurrence is one ,I of many where animals have died, but the cause has been unknown, though if an autopsy had I been conducted, such cause would I have been proved to be hydatids . i Mr L. D. Cameron, who is well j! known as the advocate of the f farmers forming their own comimittces throughout the country 3 for the eradication of hydatids. II says that, in his opinion, the eco--5 homie loss to New Zealand is | approximately £10.000.000 per an.\nurn. and that this loss will inti crease during the next few years, t] running into approximately , '£100.000.000 during the next 10 • years. .! There being nearly 20 deaths 11 each year from hydatids, every litwo months' delay in eradicating . the disease results in the deaths lof three more persons.