DANGER OF HYDATIDS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4221, 8 December 1939, Page 2

DANGER OF HYDATIDS

HEALTH DEPARTMENT DISPLAY. EDUCATING EXHIBITION PATRONS. Not much has been heard lately of the hydatid disease and the campaign for wiping it out by administering regular doses of arecolin to dogs, but the Health Department has not forgotten it. A grim, but telling exhibit now being arranged in the Health Department’s section of the Government court at the Exhibition warns the public of the grave danger of hydatids, and the prevalence of the disease in the Dominion. It is an exhibit that will probably horrify many people, but it is to some extent intended to do so. Its main object is to persuade farmers and dog owners to take the few simple steps necessary to eliminate this revolting disease—even if it has to shock them into doing so. Indeed, the whole of the Health Department’s exhibit is frankly educational, aimed primarily at instructing the public in certain simple principles of good health, and ' only secondarily reflecting the actual activities of the department itself. The numbers of people who linger by the stand give an excellent indication of how far it is succeeding in it purpose.

The exhibit centres around a magnificent carving, from a single block of wood, of a Saint Bernard dog and her four puppies. It is an attractive piece of Swiss peasant work, beautifully executed; and it is labelled “Friend or enemy?” For the main story told by the hydatid bay is that the disease is entirely disseminated by dogs. Round it are shown actual surgical specimens of hydatid infection, models of infected members, and farm models showing how to dispose of offal and prevent dogs from obtaining infected food. Murals and diagrams indicate the enormous incidence of the disease, both in stock and in human beings, and how easily it may be contracted by children playing with infected dogs. The method of dosing dogs with arecoline to counteract the worms which transmit hydatids are also illustrated.