HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2209, 2 July 1896, Page 48

HEALTH COLUMN.

Is Typhoid a Preventable Disease \

Any man or woman who has ever struggled through tho 10, 12, or 15 weeds' experience of a determined attack of typhoid fever will think we have placed an exceedingly important question at the head of this annotation. Can. typhoid be prevented? Well, either it can or it cannot ; either it is a disease whoso cause we know and can deal practically with, or it remains still one of those mysteries which baffle science and practice alike. Bat typhoid ia not now a " mystery " to the man of science ; of that we are sure. It is, on the contrary, a well understood and entirely manageable and preventable malady, Dc T. E. Hayward, medical officer of health for Haydock, Lancashire, tells bis parish in hia annual report not only that it is preventable, but also by what precise and simple means it may be prevented. We have had occasion before before to express approval of, Dr Hay ward's intelligence and thoroughness as a medical officer of health, and we commend with confidence* his tersely expressed 11 Pf inoiplea of Typhoid Prevention," as made public in his report for 1895. " Typhoid ia a preventable cHseajse," sayH this authority. 11 It is a diaa&ee of $tt(h,.and especially of the filth of human excrement." This is to be taken as the beginning of knowledge, the A B O of typhoid prevention, by tbe unscientific. The next step is equally easy. Typhoid is a disease of bacilli, typhoid bacilli,', and the bacilli we find in human excrement, and in drinking water fouled by such exoroment. It is probable that no man or woman ever takes typhoid except by swallowing some typhoid bacilli. They may be swallowed, as we have said, in drinking water, or they may be flying about in the air in the neighbourhood of typhoid excrement, and may be swallowed with mouthfuls of air. What then is the first and last commartdment v of typhoid prevention 7 " Cleanliness ; personal and public oleanliness." It is all there. If we keep ourselves clean; if we keep our drinking water clean ; if we keep our olcnets and our drains, our kitchens, sculleries, gardens, streets, and towns entirely clean, typhoid will be practically as great a stranger to most of us as is the ghost of King Solomon or the shade of the extinct Doinofcheriam.— Tho Hospital