IS SEWERAGE FARM TO BLAME FOR THE TYPHOID CASES?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18889, 12 October 1929, Page 9

IS SEWERAGE FARM TO BLAME FOR THE TYPHOID CASES?

DR THACKER GIVES HIS OPINIONS ON OUTBREAK

The symptoms of typhoid and the methods adopted in its treatment formed the subject of an interview this morning with Dr H. T. J. Thacker. Dr Thacker laid the blame for the outbreak in Christchurch on the inadequate sewerage system. He also gave it as his opinion that the attacks of gastric troubles which have been prevalent in the city may be a milder form of typhoid that the patients have been able to resist.

‘‘Typhoid was in existence here twenty-five or thirty years ago,” said Dr Thacker. “It is a water contamination complaint. The water becomes contaminated because of bad sewerage and it is just possible that by the opening up of the latest sewerage systems, where there have previously been ordinary closets, typhoid in the contaminated ground has now been brought to the surface again. Typhoid can lie dormant for years, even in ice, as was recently demonstrated on the St Lawrence River.

‘‘The diagnosis of typhoid can be done very early in an epidemic area. Anyone who has suspicious abdominal symptoms and general maladies can undergo the Widal test, a blood test, and if typhoid organisms are present they are very easily- located. People with typhoid in a mild form may be going about their usual business, acting as carriers and disseminators of the disease. Sleeplessness and headaches are symptoms of typhoid being incubated in the system. It can be disseminated by human excretia, and expectorations, and the present cases in the city are evidently of a fairly virulent nature to have been fatal so suddenly. It means that the patients have had sever internal haemorrhage and perforation of the bowel with peritonitis. Typhoid cultivates itself on the small intestine and is more common before the age of thirty. Typhoid bacillus sets up ulceration of the lymph follicles of the bowel, and if it is severe enough it perforates the bowel. Nursing and efficient dieting are the methods of treatment. Skilful attention to food and bathing and sponging with hot and cold waters are the two essentials of good treatment, with, of course, sufficient rest in bed- “ Six weeks is the period of incubation, and then the fever asserts itself with a decided increase in temperature, distention of the abdomen, with an eruption of rose-coloured spots, particularly on the abdomen. Sleeplessness, headaches, delirium, diarrli’oea, perforation of the bowels and peritonitis are the symptoms. Bed sores are also very common in such cases. Nursing and Dieting Needed.

“ Should a Widal test reveal the presence of typhoid in a seedy case, that patient should be immediately innoculated with vaccine, which is an attenuated culture of the typhoid bacillus, or serum obtained by similar means as the diphtheria toxin, the preparation of which was shown in the Health Week films at the Civic Theatre. “ Most patients recover from typhoid by skilful nursing and dieting, but the fact that it is present in this community shows that the nerve energy of the individual citizens is below par.” Occurs Puring Health Week.

“ It is no calamity that these cases of typhoid have occurred in the city during Health Week,” said Dr Thacker. “It is a counsellor that feelingly reminds us of what w-e afe. No organisms, no disease and no cancer can attack a 100 per cent human being. All cases will be immediately isolated and all contacts will, I think, be inoculated. The food supplies of these typhoid victims, particularly the milk, will be run to their source, and any sources of contamination must be rigidly inspected. The open drains in ouF city are an important source of contamination, particularly in those areas where cows are producing milk. The animal gets the disease from its drinking water and passes it on through its milk to the human subject. It is a possibility, also, that the disease has been imported in foodstuffs, such as fruit. Sewerage Disposal.

"All these infectious and contagious diseases in the city of Christchurch will warrant a drastic change in our sewerage disposal.

“ The sewerage faun is becoming a saturated sponge, and no amount of filtration wfil remove the noxious organisations. The only way they can be dealt with is by killing them biochemically or by pumping the whole of the sewerage out into the ocean, where it will be sterilised immediately by the salt water. “ The whole sewage of the east coasts of England and Scotland, the west coasts of Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and the North of France, is sterilised in the North Sea, and the best fish in the world are taken from the Dogger Bank without detriment to anybody. That shows that the fish are not affected by it. Correct Feeding. The correct feeding of the typhoid patients, together with skilful nursing, is the cure of the disease. All diet should be liquid, and the most efficient one is whole, raw milk, supplemented with ice sucking and the moderate use of iced fruit drinks.

“It is only a question whether the attacks of gastric influenza that have been going about have not been a pseudo type of typhoid that the subject has not been able to throw off. These cases have been very frequent in the last three months. Medical science is teaching us rapidly that organisms interchange their identiy, so that what to-day might be typhoid will to-mor-row be ptomaine poisoning or an acute streptococcic infection. Thus does nature change uranium into radium and radium into radium emanations.

“My advice to any seedy citizens complaining of their internal organs is to see a doctor at once, cut out commercial sugar and white starchy foods.”