HEALTH NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 92, 15 October 1927, Page 17

HEALTH NOTES

NUISANCES

INFECTIOUS DISEASES

(Contributed by the Department of

Health.)

Prom the earliest days o£ efforts topromote a better' public health, the abatement. q£ nuisances has been considered to ■ be • an ■ essential part of such work. So'much'so, that the officers appointed under pur earliest English Act dealing with public health, were known as inspectors of nuisances, a title which has survived until quite recently. The earlier•';." pioneers in health work attributed most, if not all, of what we know as epidemics, of infectious diseases ,-to the'existence of those conditions known as nuisances, insanit : ation in dwellings, dampness, lack of sunlight, overcrowding, offensive accumulations- of filth and garbage, keeping of animals under insanitary conditions, emanations from offensive trade processes, impure water supplies, and excessive production of smoke. To a very large extent this opinion survives to-day, and many people still think that an epidemic of diphtheria is directly due to some one or other of such nuisances. , To a limited extent these, early pioneers in health work were correct in their deductions, and those insanitary conditions known as nuisances still maintain their position as important factors in the production of epidemics, and in their relation to the standard of public health. But in the larger knowledge which has been acquired as to the causation of these epidemic diseases, it is now known that these conditions are not the immediate cause of such epidemics, as they are found occasionally to occur in quite good sanitary environment. Our knowledge of the life history of the organisms giving rise to these infectious diseases provides abundant proof that they do not always emanate from accumulations of filth or bad drains. ■ • DISEASE ORGANISMS.

Within the limits of our present knowledge, we know that infection of the human organism with certain- dis-ease-producing bacteria will, certain .favourable circumstances obtaining,producV specific infectious diseases. We know, however, that most of these dis-ease-producing organisms will live outside the human body, but that to retain their viability they require a suitable medium upon which to-feed, and a certain degree of warmth or moisture, and in many cases the absence of sunlight. The insanitary conditions which we know as nuisances provide ideal surroundings' for the growth of these dis-ease-producing, organisms, and thus we find typhoid fever prevailing where imperfect disposal of excreta obtains, and pulmonary tuberculosis or consumption more in evidence where overcrowding with absence of sunlight and'fresh aii is found. Again, these nuisances provide favourable surroundings in which those animal pests, responsible for the transmission of diseases to man, may live and thrive. An accumulation of excrement or filth inoculated with typhoid bacteria from some carrier is a favourable resort of the house fly, which in its turn infects our food and milk, and so spreads this disease. Deposits of rubbish and garbage provide both domicile and. food for the plaguespreading rat. Stagnant ' pools of water and empty tins, harmless in themselves no doubt, provide ideal nurseries for the mosquito. None of these states has any inherent power to produce a single disease-producing organism, but any of them has large potentialities for harm to our health.' The surgeon before operating prepares his patient and his surroundings by ensuring a condition of asepsis, i.e. absence of gorm lifo. We cannot go so far as this, it would be impracticable, but we can, by the prevention of nuisances, go a ver- long way towards suppressing factors which are favourable to the growth of disease producing organisms, and thus prevent the spread of infectious diseases. •

INSANITARY ENVIRONMENT. We must not, however,.lose sight of the fact that an insanitary environ-? ment, one^subject to nuisances, can exercise a prejudicial effect on health and physique apart altogether from its Possibilities, for promoting the spread of infectious disease. To live under conditions subjecting one to the fumes ironi an offensive trade may not render us liable to infectious disease; a neighbour's neglected: fowlyard may produce no immediate iU results to health. But to be unable to eat one's dinner in comfort in the one case, or to wake up in the morning -with a headache, owing to inability to ventil- ■?. te *he bedroom during sleeping hours in the other case, may produce a state of. unhealth and after all unhealth' means the same thing as ill-health. Toleration of such surroundings can be acquired, for the human organism has a wonderful adaptability in this respect, but such toleration is acquired at the expense of health 'arid physique. Similarly, in respect to others. of the nuisances enumerated, though the immediate discomfort.may not be so obvious, the lowering of health' and phy. sique may be more insididus and more detrimental.

The aim of present-day sanitation is to secure freedom from disease, a long term, full and useful period of life, and as many of the amenities and comforts of life as possible for the greatest mnnber; and of the factors m&£ for these ends, a thoroughly sanitary environment, free frW nuisances either injurious t0 health or . offeiisiv^ «Ul« no means the least. The evil effects of a nuisance may be widespread, affw"? 1 herl than tho Perpetrator rthtl Ov' n , a Te!r the L«gislature has rightly made the causing of a nuisance to-be a punishable offence.- The good citizen will, however, require no iuch coercive measure; and the careless citizen should recognise that he Ys not Ttl7r mg °, Ut the gQlden rule-to do to others as he would be done by."