THE ANTHRAX DANGER

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160711, 26 July 1920, Page 3

THE ANTHRAX DANGER

HEALTH DEPARTMENT’S ACTION. The case of anthrax at the Coast Hospital, in which infection has been traced to the use of a Japanese shaving brush, is not an isolated one, states tho Sydney Daily Telegraph. Probably the first of the’ kind was reported from London, followed by another in West Australia quite recently. This is the first case in New South Wales, however, in which the cause of the disease has been sheeted home to an infected brush. Anthrax is essentially a disease of animals, but it is communicable to human beings in a number of ways. There have, during the past eighteen months, been five cases reported in human beings in New South Wales. As a rule infection occurred by the person skinning an animal which has died from, or suffered from anthrax. In one of those cases there was a suspicion that a shaving brush was responsible, but no definite trace of the germs could he obtained from the brush. In the case reported on Monday the brush was found to bo infected, and, as the outbreak was on the face of the pati £t, no doubt was left as to the source of the infection. In a quiet way, the Health Department has, for the past few days, been carrying out a raid on Shaving brushes. All the Japanese brushes which were imported before the Federal Government’s restriction that can be obtained are being collected by officers of the Department and brought to tho depot in Macquarie Street. Here they ate being thoroughly tested. Dr Paton, principal medical officer of tho Board, stated that he thought there were very few such brushes available for sale in Sydney now. But he would still advise all who purchased a brush, which they had reason to believe came from tho East, to have it thoroughly sterilised. The cause of the infection in the brushes is that the brushes used have come from animals suffering from the disease, probably in Siberia. The germs are tenacious, and “nothing short of immersion in a proper antiseptic, such as that advised by the Board recently, is effective. That the public is largely aware of the danger is shown by the fact that, according to several prominent vendors of toilet articles, nine men out 6f ten will refuse a Japanese brush*