HUMAN GERM CARRIERS.

Colonist, Volume LIII, Issue 13052, 11 March 1911, Page 4

HUMAN GERM CARRIERS.

By far the most inteiesting featiue of tho medical officer's report for the year 1909-10, which forms a supplement to the 39th annual ropoit of the, Local Government Board, is the review of enteric fever "carriers," with the histories of some of tho most noted cas«s, and details of steps taken _to detect them and to treat them with the hope of a "cure." A "carrier" is a person who, either after complete recovery from the diE«ase, or apart from any known attack of illness, harbours and discharges the germs—a "human storehouse of infection," in fact. Investigations made by Dr. Theodore Thomson and Dr. J. C. G. Ledingham, of the Lister Institute, show that no efficient treatment of "carriers" has yet been found. Dr. Ledingham estimates that the proportion of germ carriers in an ordinary population is roughly about three of four to the thousand.

Among the many cases described by Dr. Ledingham are several in which servants have caused outbreaks on farms where they had been employed, and deaths have occurred before tho "carrier" has been detected.

"In one case a farmer's wife was the "germ storehouse." Her daughter was attacked, a sistor-in-law of thft farmer and her two daughters (who were living in the neighbourhood as summer visitors and getting milk from the farm) were taken ill, a child aged thirteen months, another aged nine months, the husband, a brother who assisted with the farm work, and a man servant —all between 1892 and 1897.

"In a German paso a baker's wife was the 'carrier.' Every fresh apprentice, for some years, became ill, and the baker's wife attributed these cases to 'too good diet.' "