FLY PEST.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 10330, 27 March 1916, Page 7

FLY PEST.

DANGER IN OPERATIONS.

Dr. Faulke has found the fly pest at the Wellington Hospital a serious menace to tho patients there, and especially those operated upon. In a letter (dated 15th March) to the secretary, he states that the flies have been worse during the recent hot weather than ho had ever known them to be for the past twelve years. He attributed to flies in tho hospital' the fact that operation wounds were doing worse than ho had known them to do before. Th© asepsis which was of late so uni duly prevalent in post-operative cases was i due, ho held, to the fly pest, the infection 1 being caused by tho house fly in the wards. ■ There were- three different flics in the ' wards, but the house fly was the worst offeni dor. These flies could be destroyed by light | puffings of suitable powder over places where they settle. They could be attracted j by a weak formalin solution, with a little snggar dissolved in it, and used as a spray, i A really important and urgent thing to do was to treat tho stable and manure heap, 1 where the eggs of the flies were incubated, with kerosene. Fly infection was a j very serious thing in all the wards. All of I the flies carry on their feet and bodies mii- | lions of septic bacteria. Ho felt so strong- ; ly on the matter that ho suggested the proj per course to take would be to postpone i non-urgent operations until the flics were , less prevalent. He offered to give every ! assistance in his power in dealing with the i pest. j Tho Hospital Board resolved that the mai- , ter should bo the subject of a conference I between the acting medical superintendent | and Dr. Faulke.