Page 3 Advertisements Column 4

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13498, 27 May 1907, Page 3

INFECTIOUS : DISEASE AND -; SAFETY.'Sir,— appearance, of an unwelcome disease in our city having caused alarm amongst certain persons, will you ..permit roe to say a few words that possibly may do some good. Dr. George M. Sternberg, •surgeon-general 'in the United States army (retired), has recently contributed to > tho Progressive Science 'Series a book, " Infection and Immunity, with special reference to tho prevention of infectious diseases." It appears that in Manila the Board of Health reported for September, 1892, one death from plague during tho month, 10 deaths from typhoid fever, 35 deaths from dysentery, and 75 deaths'from "the great white v plague." pulmonary . tuberculosis. Bubonic plague, according to Dr. Low-son, quoted by our author, is generally much more fatal to Asiatics than to Europeans. The mortality among.it Europeans in Hongkong was 15" per cent., among Japanese 60 per cent., Portuguese 65 per cent., and Chinese 93 per cent. Dr. Sternberg says that tho Japanese physician, Aoyoma, who was associated with Kitasato,- and who contracted the disease known as the plague* but recovered, was of opinion that in a majority of cases, and.-perhaps in all, infection occurs through an external wound. _ Ho calls attention to the fact that physicians and nurses in attendance upon cases of the disease rarely become infected, and states that during the epidemic of 1894 in Hongkong only three Japanese and one Chinese physician became. infected, while all of the nurses escaped ; also to the fact that of 300 English soldiers who volunteered to clear, and disinfect tho Chinese pest bouses during the prevalence of the epidemic only 10 contracted the disease. Hero comes a hint to persons who are careless about wounds and scratches. The author says that the- greater liability of the lower class of natives to contract the disease is duo' to insanitary dwellings and the fact that they seldom wear shoes and stockings, and thus are very liable to infection through insignificant wounds, scratches, or abrasions-both..of tho hands and the feet. Tho immunity of physicians and nurses is due to tho observance of sanitary precautions, and if wo in Auckland will observe thoso precautions and assist tho authorities wo may bo immune too. Rats, he says, are responsible for transmitting the disease in many instances. When the plague stricken rats die the fleas escape from them and puncture the skin of man, or flies crawl over the rats* bodies and then alight upon human food, and thus the disease is propagated. Wo ought to kill and burn, not bury, all rate. F. G. Ewingtox.