The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1909. TYPHOID EPIDEMICS

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2446, 10 March 1909, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1909. TYPHOID EPIDEMICS

At the present time, when tylioid fever is unpleasantly prominent in Gisborne, it is opportune to learn all that can bo ascertained concerning the peculiarities of this dangerous and trying disease. The last issue of the “Australasian Medical Gazette” devotes an article to the subject and the conclusions arrived at are of more than passing interest. The “Gazette” says: — No doubt much blame must be cast upon the carelessness and the indifference of the local health authorities in the country (towns, but we must remember that under existing conditions and with our present knowledge of the spread of the disease, we must say that while theoretically typhoid may be a preventible disease, yet practically it is not so, and it remains for the profession and the health, officials to unite in some definite' programme of work which will remove this blot from tlio hygienic condition of our State. It has been proved now, beyond doubt, that a typhoid epidemic may bo started by a “typhoid carrier.” A patient who may have had typhoid fever even years before and who may even have* forgotten that he over suffered from that disease, may enter a district and infect a large number of persons. No doubt these typhoid carriers have been ■responsible for starting epidemics of the disease, which haarc previously been almost impossible to explain. The practical conclusion- to be drawn from this knowledge seems to he that, as far as possible, no patient who has suffered from typhoid fever in hospital should ho allowed to leave the institution until his excretions have been proved to he free from the bacillus typhosus. .This is the theoretical conclusion, hut the difficulties of carrying out that investigation are great, yet not insurmountable, if the seriousness of the danger is duly recognised. .

The statement here made is anything hut comforting, wet at the same time it explains a good deal that has in the past been, hard to understand, and it proves a new poitnt from which the health authorities can attack a formidable foe. The cliaef problem, of course, wiil be to deal with a typhoid patient who may not be'jint a public hospital. But if every case of enteric fever which is admitted to a public hospital is retained there until the infectious stage is passed, then a decided step in -advance will; be made in

the prevention of localised epidemics due to “typhoid carriers.” The work that has yet to be accomplished lies in the direction of 'ascertaining by what means we may secure, or be sure of securing, the absence of the typhoid bacilli from the discharges of patients convalescent from this disease. When this has been accomplished, then tho Boards of Health, just as they now require tho notification of a case of enteric fever, should insist upon a certificate being provided that tho patient discharged is now free from infectivity. 'Until such a measure as this is taken, wo cannot be said to be doing all that ought to be done for the prevention of epidemics of typhoid fever.