UNDULANT FEVER

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 83, 4 October 1929, Page 11

UNDULANT FEVER

MEDICAL INQUIRIES

UNPASTEURISED MILK

VALUE OF EESEAECH

Medical attention in New Zealand has recently been focused on a disease called undulant fever by a questionnaire from the Health Division of the League of Nations inquiring into the incidence of the malady in this country. It had been known for some time that in parts of New Zealand contagious abor-' tion in cattle existed. It. was also known that there is a very close relationship between the infecting organism of contagious abortion and the organism which causes undulant or Malta fever. Cases of undulant fever have been observed in which the infecting organism was not the bacillus of Malta fever but the bacillus of bovine abortion. The difficulty in recognising the disease is occasioned by the fact that it may readily be confused with typhoid fever, tuberculosis, rheumatism, malaria, influenza, and other infective processes. It was not until deliberate investigation of some obscure illnesses was undertaken that it was shown that the bacillus of bovine abortion was the cause of the illness. There have been reported in the New Zealand Medical Journal several cases of human infections by the bacillus of contagious abortion. These cases have all occurred in the Auckland district, but it is pointed outf in the Medical Journal that the rural population of New Zealand, and of the Auckland provincial district in particular, is mainly dependent on dairy farming for its livelihood, and that vcontagious abortion is a common and very serious disease in the farm herds. The practice of drinking fresh milk is wider spread in this country, so that the chances of infection are great. In order to discover if cases were occurring in the country, laboratory tests have been made with blood from as many patients '• as possible suffering from obscure and unexplained fever. In this manner the above-mentioned cases were discovered. . RELATED TO BOVINE ABORTION. In America and England, and especially in the Scandinavian countries, it has been shown that there is a similar relationship between tho incidence of bovine abortion and cases of undulant fever in the human being. It is noteworthy that in districts in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, where bovine abortion is rife, human'infections of this wganism have been found. Considerable difficulty is experienced in estimating the exact incidence of the disease, kt\mse the fever produced is sometimes of mild degree, although prolonged, and unless the possibility of infection by tho organism of contagious abortion is suspected, and appropriate laboratory . investigation is 'undertaken, the exact-diagnosis will be missed.. ■ ....''. . . ."..'•

TJNPASTEURISED MILK. ! In a recent report by Dr. H. E. Hasseltine* United States Public Health Service, who has made a most careful study of undulant fever (so far as the available medical reports and statistics permit), he states:— "There are many cases occurring in ui-bau communities, and in persons following occupations that do not bring them in.contact with animals, that seem to offer no possible explanation other than milk-borne infection. ... In tho group whoso occupation does not furnish a clue to the probable method of acquiring the infection, it is found that practically all have used unpastourised milk within a sufficiently recent period to account for tho disease. In tho large cities where a high x>ereentago of the milk supply is pasteurised the' disease, is comparatively rarely reported. . . .The ideal method of prevention of the disease is tho elimination of the infection from livestock, a goal which veterinarians and the Department of Agriculture hope can be reached by separation of infected from non-infected herds. A WONDERFUL DISCOVERY. A recent number of tho "Lancet" contains an article giving particulars of a case of brucella abortus infection in. man. The,:evidence goes to. show that the infection was caused by the drinking of uupasteurised or unboiled milk. The medical men who investigated the case report that "the patient was accustomed to drink at least half a pint,' and frequently a pint of milk every evening beforo supper. This was fresh, raw, often warm milk, from the afternoon milking of the institutional herd of seven cows. In February, 1928, one of''these cows had aborted without apparent cause, and though continuing for a period to give milk in moderate quantities, it had ceased to do bo about the end of September. Bacteriological testa showed that the cow was infected with brueella abortus, and the presumption was that the animal's milk was the probable cause from which the' patient had been infected.

"No one connected contagious abortion in cows with undulant foyer in human beings until Miss Alice C. Evans, of the Eesearch Laboratories of tho Dairy Division of the Federal Department of Agriculture, and later of the Hygienic Laboratory of the United Statss Public Health Service, and Johns Hopkins University Hospital, made the announcement that the bacilli in both cases were the same. Numerous careful experiments proved'the truth of her statement. Tho story of her discovery ranks with other wonderful discoveries of bacteriological science. It is sad to relate that while worJdhg with the bacilli, Miss Evans contracted undulant fever, and is now a patient in Johns Hopkins Hospital. • The Society of American Bacteriologists last year elected Miss Evans to be (heir president, and she is now striving to solve the mystery of encephalitis, the dread sleeping sickneßs."