HOW SMALLPOX IS SPREAD

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 26 May 1923, Page 14

HOW SMALLPOX IS SPREAD

THE DANGER OF CONTACT.

'Anyone : wh'oi':follows the weekly reiurns of the Registrar-General will be struck by the "large proportion of the pases of smallpox in; the recent epidemics which have occurred;in; rural or village .communities, ssys a medical correspondent, ofi^ttiei <'-' Manchester. Guardian..'.'.The Jaw has made it an . offence to expose •any "infected person"- ill a public place or vehicle. But; a " contact "—that is, someone who has been in .contact ■with a case, who may therefore be actually incubating the disease and about to develop ,it,; and who almost, certainly may carry.Mhe, unknown: clause of infection on his .clothes .or-person—is not. an ■" infected .person..'.'... He ■ may go in, a. crowded 'bus; prtramcar: to a still more crowded picture.palaoß distributing the.infection. He may, aridj'of; course, generally does, refuse .to,,be..vaccinated. When a hou6e has to ■be temporarily closed for disinfection, -the'ilbcal authority may provide temporary;'"shelter " for the displaced inhabitant!,"; but' if they even feed the victims they-are acting ultra vires. The Ministry of- Health, has lately been at great pains to impress on local authorities this limitation of their powers. It might .cost a few pounds, to feed the displaced and outraged family, so the encouragement of smallpox has been made a part of our national " economy."

. In this way minor outbreaks in Derbyshire have been a serious menace to such centres of population as Derby, Sheffield, Nottingham, and even Manchester.

. It is curious to compare our methods of dealing with this disease with the action taken in connection with outbreaks of infectious disease in cattle. If a caee of foot-and-mouth disease is discovered in a herd the Board of Agriculture immediately declares the area to be infected. What is generally known as a '■'. standstill order " then becomes operative, and no animal can be moved within that area without license from the proper authority. The same applies to swine fevqr. But as smallpox only affects human beings, no such powers exist. The individual must wait until he develops the disease and has full opportunities of infecting others before he can.be dealt witll. Then,,of course, he is -removed to-'a hospital, which, as a rule, is-kept. empty for years at-a time at a great and unnecessary cost to the public. Yet of all infectious diseases miajlppx is. the one which can be most ■definitely and easily prevented ! IJ, is:' impossible, to resist. the, conclus-ion-that if slavery -were'reintrodiiced and human beings could again become the

-'private property " of others, infectious diseases_ woLiid at orice be prevented in the same rigid, practical, and logical way in which similar outbreaks among cattle 1 are dealt with. Compulsory isolation "R'puid; of course, be substituted for compulsory slaughter, as the human carcass would not, have any .■" food value."' In the meantime we are deliberately invitmg the re-establishment of this disease, which for two generations has been such i rarity that the majority of medical men to-day have never seen a case.